Meaning & use
hoard
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Meanings
verbtransitive or intransitive
To collect and keep a large amount of something, often secretly and more than you need.
Grammar: Takes an object, or stands alone: hoard food; people started hoarding.
Patterns
- hoard something
- hoard something away
Some shoppers hoarded flour when the storm was announced.
The squirrel hoards acorns for the winter.
He hoarded old newspapers until the room was full.
nouncountable
A large store of valuable or useful things that has been saved or hidden.
Grammar: Often followed by of: a hoard of coins.
Patterns
- a hoard of something
Archaeologists found a hoard of silver coins in the field.
The dragon guarded its hoard of gold.
She kept a hoard of chocolate in her desk.
Word forms
| plural | hoards |
|---|---|
| third person singular | hoards |
| past tense | hoarded |
| past participle | hoarded |
| -ing form | hoarding |
Common combinations
- hoard supplies
- People began to hoard supplies before the blizzard.
- hidden hoard
- A metal detector uncovered a hidden hoard.
- hoard of treasure
- The legend tells of a hoard of pirate treasure.
- hoard money
- He hoarded money rather than spend it.
- hoard away
- She hoarded away her best stories.
Synonyms and how they differ
- stockpile
- Stockpile is more neutral and often used for planned reserves, while hoard suggests greed or secrecy.
- stash
- Stash is informal and means to hide something, whether a large or small amount.
- save
- Save is neutral and positive, while hoard suggests keeping too much.
- accumulate
- Accumulate describes gradually collecting, with no negative feeling.
Opposites
Word family
- hoarder noun
- a person who hoards
- hoarding noun
- the act of collecting and keeping too much
Commonly confused: hoard or horde?
hoard vs horde
A horde is a large crowd of people or animals; a hoard is a stored collection of things. They sound exactly alike.
Practice
The museum displayed a ____ of Roman coins discovered buried in a farmer's field.
Choose one answer.
A hoard is a hidden stored collection of valuables. A horde is a crowd of people, a tempting homophone that does not fit coins.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “hoard”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.