anchor

1. 1.

   fix firmly and stably

   “anchor the lamppost in concrete”

   Synonymsground

   Broaderfasten
2. 2.

   secure a vessel with an anchor

   “We anchored at Baltimore”

   Synonymscast anchordrop anchor

   Broaderfasten

Other forms of anchor

plural

anchors·

past tense

anchorred·

present participle

anchorring·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about anchor

What does anchor mean?

anchor means "a mechanical device that prevents a vessel from moving". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in anchor?

anchor has 2 syllables: an-chor. The stress falls on "an". In IPA it is /ˈæŋkɚ/.

What is another word for anchor?

Close synonyms include ground tackle, mainstay, keystone, backbone, linchpin. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is anchor a common word?

anchor is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.