Meaning & use
pound
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Meanings
nouncountable
A unit of weight equal to sixteen ounces, or about 454 grams.
Grammar: After numbers it often stays singular in speech: a five-pound bag; two pounds of flour.
Patterns
- a pound of something
I bought a pound of apples at the market.
The baby weighed seven pounds at birth.
She lost ten pounds over the summer.
nouncountableBritish
The main unit of money in the United Kingdom and a few other countries.
Grammar: Countable: a pound, five pounds; the symbol is £.
Patterns
- pay five pounds for something
The ticket costs twelve pounds.
He paid one pound for a coffee.
The pound fell against the dollar this week.
verbtransitive or intransitive
To hit something again and again with great force.
Grammar: Can take an object (pound the door) or not (rain pounding on the roof).
Patterns
- pound on something
- pound something with something
He pounded on the door until someone answered.
Waves pounded the rocks all night.
The cook pounded the dough with her fists.
verbintransitive
To beat fast and heavily, as a heart does.
Grammar: No object; used of the heart or head.
Patterns
- pound with something
My heart pounded as I waited for the results.
His head pounded after the noisy party.
Her pulse pounded in her ears.
nouncountable
A place where stray animals or towed cars are kept until their owners collect them.
Grammar: Countable: the dog pound, the car pound.
Patterns
- take something to the pound
The stray dog was taken to the pound.
We collected our car from the pound.
The pound posts photos of lost pets online.
Word forms
| plural | pounds |
|---|---|
| third person singular | pounds |
| past tense | pounded |
| past participle | pounded |
| -ing form | pounding |
Common combinations
- a pound of
- Add a pound of butter to the recipe.
- pound sterling
- Prices are listed in pound sterling.
- pound the pavement
- He pounded the pavement looking for work.
- pound on the door
- Someone was pounding on the door at midnight.
- heart pounding
- She woke with her heart pounding.
- pound cake
- We ate warm pound cake with berries.
Synonyms and how they differ
- hammer
- Hammer suggests striking with a tool-like action, while pound suggests heavy repeated blows by anything.
- batter
- Batter means to hit repeatedly so as to damage something.
- thump
- Thump describes a single dull sound, but pound is repeated and stronger.
- throb
- Throb is used for pain or a pulse with a steady beat, and is a bit gentler than pound.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: pound or pond?
pound vs pond
A pond is a small body of water, whereas pound is a unit of weight or money or a verb meaning to hit.
Practice
After the sprint, her heart began to ___ in her chest.
Choose one answer.
A heart that beats fast and hard pounds. Float, hover and spill do not describe a heartbeat.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “pound”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.