undergird

Questions about undergird

What does undergird mean?

undergird means "lend moral support to". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in undergird?

undergird has 3 syllables and divides as un-der-gird under the regular spelling rules. It is not in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, so that comes from how the word is written rather than from a recorded pronunciation, and no stress or phonetic transcription is claimed for it.

What is another word for undergird?

Close synonyms include brace up. 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 undergird a common word?

undergird is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.