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rand

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rand¹

  • /ɹænd/ Canada, US, UK
  • [ɹʷeənd] ~ [ɹʷɛənd]
  • /ɹand/ British, Northern England, Southern
  • /ɾand/ Scotland, Wales
  • /ɹæːnd/ Australia
  • [ɹʷeːnd] ~ [ɹʷɛːnd]
  • /ɹɛnd/ New Zealand
  • /ɹɐnt/ General South African, sometimes

Rhymes with -ænd

Where it comes from

From Middle English rand, from Old English rand (“edge, border, margin, rim, shore”), from Proto-West Germanic *rand, from Proto-Germanic *randaz, *randō (“edge, rim, crust”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rem- (“to rest, prop or support oneself”). Cognate with Dutch rand (“edge, border, outskirts, rim”), German Rand (“edge, border, margin, rim, outskirts”), Swedish rand (“rand, stripe, edge, verge”). Related to rind.

noun rands

  1. The border of an area of land, now especially marshland. at the wald's rand; the rand of the marsh
  2. dialectal, obsolete A strip of meat; a long fleshy piece of beef, cut from the flank or leg; a sort of steak. They came with chopping-knives / To cut me into rands and sirloins
  3. UK, dialectal, rare A border, edge or rim; a strip, as of cloth. They quarrelled an' fought 'mang the clippin's an' rands, / The tailor insistin' the colour was blue.
  4. A strip of leather used to fit the heels of a shoe.
  5. A single rod woven in and out of the stakes.

rand²

  • /ɹænd/ Canada, US, UK
  • [ɹʷeənd] ~ [ɹʷɛənd]
  • /ɹand/ British, Northern England, Southern
  • /ɾand/ Scotland, Wales
  • /ɹæːnd/ Australia
  • [ɹʷeːnd] ~ [ɹʷɛːnd]
  • /ɹɛnd/ New Zealand
  • /ɹɐnt/ General South African, sometimes

Rhymes with -ænd

Where it comes from

Named after Witwatersrand; the last element is Afrikaans rand (“ridge”), from Dutch rand, from Old Saxon rand, from Germanic *randaz. Compare Etymology 1, and Rand.

The sense of currency is because of gold that was extracted from the Witwatersrand rocks.

noun rands · rand

  1. A rocky slope, especially the area over a river valley; specifically, the Rand
  2. The currency of South Africa, divided into 100 cents.

rand³

  • /ɹænd/ Canada, US, UK
  • [ɹʷeənd] ~ [ɹʷɛənd]
  • /ɹand/ British, Northern England, Southern
  • /ɾand/ Scotland, Wales
  • /ɹæːnd/ Australia
  • [ɹʷeːnd] ~ [ɹʷɛːnd]
  • /ɹɛnd/ New Zealand
  • /ɹɐnt/ General South African, sometimes

Rhymes with -ænd

Where it comes from

See rant.

verb rands · randing · randed

  1. intransitive, obsolete To rant; to storm. […] I ſmelt out my noble ſtincker Greenſheild in his Chamber, and as tho my heart ſtringes had bin crackt, I vvept, & thumpd, and thumpd, and rau'd and randed, and raild, and told him hovv my vvife vvas novv grovvne as common as baibery, and that ſhee had hierd her Taylor to ride vvith her to VVare,

rand⁴

  • /ɹænd/ Canada, US, UK
  • [ɹʷeənd] ~ [ɹʷɛənd]
  • /ɹand/ British, Northern England, Southern
  • /ɾand/ Scotland, Wales
  • /ɹæːnd/ Australia
  • [ɹʷeːnd] ~ [ɹʷɛːnd]
  • /ɹɛnd/ New Zealand
  • /ɹɐnt/ General South African, sometimes

Rhymes with -ænd

Where it comes from

Shortened from random.

noun rands

  1. A random number.

Rand⁵

Rhymes with -ænd

Where it comes from

From Afrikaans rand, from English rand; compare English rand.

noun Rand

  1. Alternative letter-case form of rand (the currency of south Africa)

proper noun the Rand

  1. South Africa The Witwatersrand, a gold-mining geographic area also known as the Reef in the province of Gauteng, South Africa, of which the principal city is Johannesburg.

proper noun

  1. A surname.
  2. A diminutive of the male given names Randall and Randolph. In a Fox Business interview on Tuesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) alluded to the distinction between private and government responses to offensive speech, but his comments were ambiguous enough that an uncharitable viewer could easily interpret them as approval of the latter.
  3. A village and civil parish in West Lindsey district, Lincolnshire, England (OS grid ref TF1078).
  4. A small town in Federation council area, southern New South Wales, Australia.
  5. An unincorporated community in Jackson County, Colorado, United States.
  6. An unincorporated community in Kaufman County, Texas, United States.
  7. A census-designated place in Kanawha County, West Virginia, United States.

RAND⁶

adjective

  1. abbreviation, initialism, not comparable Initialism of reasonable and nondiscriminatory: a standard used with respect to licensing.

proper noun

  1. abbreviation, initialism Initialism of Research and Development: a nonprofit global policy think tank.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: abyss, brink, rim, band, lander, edges, edge, outskirts, periphery, perimeter, margin, gr, verge, random, remington, abel

Translations

Every language

noun numismatics of South Africa

한국어랜드 raendeu
日本語ランド rando
中文蘭特 /兰特 lántè
हिन्दीरेंड reṇḍ
Kiswahilirandi
Portuguêsrand
DeutschRand
Ελληνικάραντ rant
Русскийранд rand
العربيةرَانْد rand

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Cite this
MLA

"rand." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/rand. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

rand. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/rand

Chicago

"rand." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/rand.

BibTeX
@misc{rand_2026,
  title = {rand},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/rand},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}