Other forms: strands
A strand is a single thread. A strand of hair, three strands, a strand of wire.
Rope and cable are made by twisting strands together, which is what gives them strength. A strand of pearls is a single string of them. Figuratively, a strand is one part of a larger story or argument: several strands, pull the strands together. There is a separate word strand meaning a shore, which survives in place names and in stranded, meaning left behind by the tide and so stuck.
1nounstrandA single thread.
“She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.”
2nounlargerOne part of a larger story or argument.
“The novel weaves together three strands: a love story, a murder and a family secret.”
strand is a thread or thematic line.
The shore word is Old English strand, and the thread word appeared later with no clear origin. They are separate words, and stranded meaning stuck comes from the shore rather than the thread.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)trAnt- — strand, border, field
Proto-Germanic
*strandō — edge, rim, shore
Proto-West Germanic
*strand
Old English
strand — strand, sea-shore, shore
Middle English
strand
English, today
strand
From Middle English strand, strond, from Old English strand (“strand, sea-shore, shore”), from Proto-West Germanic strand, from Proto-Germanic strandō (“edge, rim, shore”), from Proto-Indo-European (s)trAnt- (“strand, border, field”), from Proto-Indo-European sterh₃- (“to broaden, spread out”). Cognate with West Frisian strân, German Strand (“beach”), Danish, Dutch, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish strand (“beach”), Faroese strond (“beach”), Icelandic strönd* (“beach”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Jewellery & Watches