blend
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to mix smoothly and inseparably together.
to blend the ingredients in a recipe.
- Antonyms:
- separate
-
to mix (various sorts or grades) in order to obtain a particular kind or quality.
Blend a little red paint with the blue paint.
-
to prepare by such mixture.
This tea is blended by mixing chamomile with pekoe.
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Phonetics. to pronounce (an utterance) as a combined sequence of sounds.
verb (used without object)
-
to mix or intermingle smoothly and inseparably.
I can't get the eggs and cream to blend.
- Antonyms:
- separate
-
to fit or relate harmoniously; accord; go.
The brown sofa did not blend with the purple wall.
-
to have no perceptible separation.
Sea and sky seemed to blend.
noun
-
an act or manner of blending.
tea of our own blend.
- Synonyms:
- amalgamation, combination
-
a mixture or kind produced by blending.
a special blend of rye and wheat flours.
- Synonyms:
- amalgamation, combination
-
Linguistics. a word made by putting together parts of other words, as motel, made from motor and hotel, brunch, from breakfast and lunch, or guesstimate, from guess and estimate.
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Phonetics. a sequence of two or more consonant sounds within a syllable, as the bl in blend; consonant cluster.
verb phrase
verb
-
to mix or mingle (components) together thoroughly
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(tr) to mix (different grades or varieties of tea, whisky, tobacco, etc) to produce a particular flavour, consistency, etc
-
(intr) to look good together; harmonize
-
(intr) (esp of colours) to shade imperceptibly into each other
noun
-
a mixture or type produced by blending
-
the act of blending
-
Also called: portmanteau word. a word formed by joining together the beginning and the end of two other words
"brunch" is a blend of "breakfast" and "lunch"
Usage
What is a basic definition of blend? Blend means to mix together so thoroughly that things become inseparable. Blend is also the mixture made through this act. Blend can mean to harmonize or go well together. Blend has a few other senses as a verb and noun. When two or more things are blended together, they have been combined so completely that it is impossible to separate them back out again. For example, you blend cocoa powder with milk to make chocolate milk. Turning that chocolate milk back into milk and cocoa powder is not going to happen. This sense of blend is a synonym of the word mix, although blend usually means to mix something especially thoroughly. Something, such as a specialized kitchen appliance, that blends things is called a blender.
- Real-life examples: Smoothies are made by blending fruit with milk or yogurt. Different teas are blended together to make different flavors. The romantic comedy genre of movies blends the genres of romance and comedy together.
- Used in a sentence: She made a delicious banana smoothie by blending milk with bananas.
- Real-life examples: Starbucks offers many blends of coffee. There are many different blends of wine, such as Champagne and Chianti.
- Used in a sentence: The book was an odd blend of horror and history.
- Real-life examples: Usually, people like to get furniture that blends, or has a similar color or pattern, with wallpaper or carpeting because it makes a room look nicer. A person may prefer socks that blend with their pants. Most people try to blend in with the people around them rather than stick out and appear strange or different. A chorus practices hard to ensure their voices blend well.
- Used in a sentence: We tried to find a couch that blends with the color of our living room carpet.
Synonym Usage
See mix.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
blendsimple
-
blendssimple
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have blendedperfect
-
have blentperfect
-
has blendedperfect
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has blentperfect
-
am blendingprogressive
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are blendingprogressive
-
is blendingprogressive
-
have been blendingperfect progressive
-
has been blendingperfect progressive
Past
-
blendedsimple
-
blentsimple
-
had blendedperfect
-
had blentperfect
-
was blendingprogressive
-
were blendingprogressive
-
had been blendingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of blend
First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English blenden (the first e not satisfactorily explained) “to mix”; akin to Old English blandan “to mix”; cognate with or partially derived from the Old Norse verb blanda (from the present stem blend- ), Old High German blantan “to mix”
Explanation
If you blend red and blue, you get purple. To blend is to mix together thoroughly. If you put this color in your hair, you'll blend with the people at a punk rock concert! Used as a noun, the word blend means the thing you mixed together or the act of mixing something together. Purple is a blend of red and blue. When you see this word, picture the blender on your kitchen counter. If you use it to give ice cream, fruit and fruit juice a blend, it'll mix things together well to make a very tasty blend.
Vocabulary lists containing blend
Common Five-letter Words for Wordle, List 2
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"Culture Clash"
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Visual Arts - Introductory
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The woman told the judge she then saw Stout blend into the crowd of people rushing to evacuate from the Alligator Hole swimming area.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2026
You can still make juice, but not the apple juice that pays the bills, and every batch you run on the wrong blend earns less than it should.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026
For a simpler option, sprinkle in a pre-made umami spice blend.
From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2026
Since most U.S. gasoline already contains the maximum standard amount of ethanol of 10%, refiners cannot simply blend more biofuel to meet these targets, according to Robert Auers, refined-fuels analyst at Novi Labs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
Breaking away from the sight—it made absolute bitterness blend throughout his prior reaction of awe and yearning—he said, “I’d like to test out the selection, now. Can we go downstairs?”
From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick
The adaptation of the Tony-award-winning musical blends two ancient Greek myths with themes of love and class struggle, set in the Depression-era world.
From Barron's ● Jul. 26, 2026
Abdur-Rashid says every night during the holidays she will play board games with her children, which blends quality time and fun.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
Last week, the company announced it was voluntarily recalling various products including chopped lettuce, shredded lettuce, blends of iceberg, romaine lettuce and salad mixes that were supplied to restaurants and retailers in 27 states.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
One day the blends you can still get have fewer apples.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026
And laughter, a high-pitched laugh that blends harmoniously with the music.
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
If Alphabet were excluded from second-quarter earnings figures overall, the S&P 500’s blended earnings growth rate — which combines actual results and expected results — would fall to 25.9%, from 37.9%, according to the report.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 26, 2026
At processing facilities, typically near fields, raw lettuce may be cut and blended with other ingredients.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Once blended smooth, it becomes a blank canvas with a little backbone.
From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2026
The researchers believe this is because the plastic becomes blended into the asphalt binder.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 28, 2026
That night Armando and Ricardo blended into the mournful face of Johannes Vélez.
From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago
The church is a “serious house on serious earth ... In whose blent air all our compulsions meet, are recognised, and robed as destinies,” he writes.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 17, 2015
In whose blent air all our compulsions meet, Are recognized, and robed as destinies.
From Time Magazine Archive
Presently a voice blent with the rich tones of the instrument; it was a lady who sang, and very sweet her notes were.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
A calm, subdued triumph, blent with a longing earnestness, marked his enunciation of the last glorious verses of that chapter.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
A soft hope blent with my sorrow that soon I should dare to drop a kiss on that brow of rock, and on those lips so sternly sealed beneath it: but not yet.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
She loved the fusion artists like Jay Sean blending R&B, Punjabi, Hindi and English into something that felt exactly like her life.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
Twenty years from now, sports viewing may be about fans creating their own reality, blending the real, the virtual and the astonishing for unique experiences.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
This last supper of a season is a culmination of all their training, formal and otherwise, blending into a stress test that amazingly feels less stressful than many of this show’s loudest cortisol-spiking installments.
From Salon ● Jun. 28, 2026
Beyond adapting to a new culture himself, Bishop credits his parents for helping him develop his curiosity about other people and cultures as well as blending social commentary and comedy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026
Mami hummed softly, the yellow and orange flowers of her dress blending into the greenness: a miraculous garden with legs and arms and a melody.
From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
