Words / B2

BLAYD/bleɪd/

A blade is the flat cutting part of a knife, sword, or tool: a steel blade; the blade of. It can also mean a long thin leaf of grass, but this entry is the cutting sense. Edge is a close twin; knife is the whole tool. Name the blade length in the DT spec, then the material. Mix-up: blade vs bland; the grass-leaf sense; do not write blade for a whole pair of scissors unless the source names a blade.

Meaning

The flat cutting part of a knife, sword, or tool.

Examples

• “Name the blade length in the DT spec, then the material, not a grass-leaf caption.”
• “A turbine blade featured in the physics case, which is the aerofoil sense — still quote the length if given.”

Good to know

a steel / razor blade; the blade of a knife. Close: edge / cutting edge. Trap: bland / a grass leaf unless the source uses it. DT and history. The cutting part — quote mm and the metal.

Near in meaning

cutting edge, knife-edge, cutter

New