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• brand
  brand

  noun

  the kind, grade, or make of a product or service, as indicated by a stamp, trademark, or the like.
• Brand
  Brand

  noun

  Oscar, 1920–2016, U.S. folk singer, born in Canada.

brand

¹ American  

[brand] / brænd /

noun

• brands
  plural

1. the kind, grade, or make of a product or service, as indicated by a stamp, trademark, or the like.

   the best brand of coffee.

2. a mark made by burning or otherwise, to indicate kind, grade, make, ownership, etc.

3. a mark formerly put upon criminals with a hot iron.

4. any mark of disgrace; stigma.

   Synonyms:

   taint, blot, spot, stain

5. branding iron.

6. a kind or variety of something distinguished by some distinctive characteristic.

   The movie was filled with slapstick—a brand of humor he did not find funny.

7. a set of distinctive characteristics that establish a recognizable image or identity for a person or thing.

   Building your personal brand will positively impact your career.

8. a burning or partly burned piece of wood.

9. Archaic. a sword.

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verb (used with object)

• brands,
  present (3rd person singular)
• branded,
  past participle,  past
• branding
  present participle

1. to label or mark with or as if with a brand.

2. to mark with disgrace or infamy; stigmatize.

3. to impress indelibly.

   The plane crash was branded on her mind.

4. to give a brand name to.

   branded merchandise.

5. to promote as a brand or brand name.

idioms

1. on brand, in keeping with the distinctive characteristics that establish a recognizable identity for a person, product, or thing: He says he wants to be more compassionate, but that’s not really on brand for him.

   The hotel’s interactive website is so on brand.

   He says he wants to be more compassionate, but that’s not really on brand for him.

Brand ² American  

[brand] / brænd /

noun

1. Oscar, 1920–2016, U.S. folk singer, born in Canada.

2. a male given name.

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brand ¹ British  

/ brænd /

noun

1. a particular product or a characteristic that serves to identify a particular product

2. a trade name or trademark

3. a particular kind or variety

   he had his own brand of humour

4. an identifying mark made, usually by burning, on the skin of animals or (formerly) slaves or criminals, esp as a proof of ownership

5. an iron heated and used for branding animals, etc

6. a mark of disgrace or infamy; stigma

   he bore the brand of a coward

7. a burning or burnt piece of wood, as in a fire

8. archaic

   1. a flaming torch

   2. a sword

9. a fungal disease of garden plants characterized by brown spots on the leaves, caused by the rust fungus Puccinia arenariae

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verb

1. to label, burn, or mark with or as with a brand

2. to place indelibly in the memory

   the scene of slaughter was branded in their minds

3. to denounce; stigmatize

   they branded him a traitor

4. to give a product a distinctive identity by means of characteristic design, packaging, etc

Brand ² British  

/ brænd /

noun

1. Russell , born 1975, English comedian and television presenter

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• brander
  noun
• branding
  noun
• rebrand
  verb (used with object)
• brandless
  adjective
• nonbrand
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• brands
  plural

Participles

• branding
  present
• branded
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• brand
  simple
• brands
  simple
• have branded
  perfect
• has branded
  perfect
• am branding
  progressive
• are branding
  progressive
• is branding
  progressive
• have been branding
  perfect progressive
• has been branding
  perfect progressive

Past

• branded
  simple
• had branded
  perfect
• was branding
  progressive
• were branding
  progressive
• had been branding
  perfect progressive

Future

• will brand
  simple
• will have branded
  perfect
• will be branding
  progressive
• will have been branding
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of brand

First recorded before 950; Middle English, Old English: “burning, a burning piece of wood, torch, sword”; cognate with Dutch brand, German Brand, Old Norse brandr; akin to burn ¹

Explanation

If your friend buys her jeans based on the brand, it means that the name on the label of her pants is very important to her. A brand is a product name. The cereal aisle at the grocery store is a good place to see how many different brands there are of the same product. A company name, or the name it invents for a particular item or service, is a brand. Another kind of brand is the verb that means to mark or name something in a negative way. If you brand your classmate as a bully, you accuse him of bullying and expose his behavior to other people.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

brand Brand brands branded branding

Content creator and golf brand Good Good has apologised and removed an advertisement for a new golf driver which showed a woman being pushed to the ground after reaching for the club.

From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026

Music publications like Stereogum and Pitchfork have switched to a paid supporter model while fostering their communities of indie music obsessives in robust — and, in Pitchfork’s case, brand new — comment sections.

From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026

The brand Miss Grass found a star in Nita Freeman, a San Diego octogenarian with five great-grandchildren.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026

“But I’m gonna try and play my brand of baseball; that’s why the Dodgers got me. So, yeah, I’m just gonna go out there and be myself.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2026

Each cage was stencilled with the name and the brand of the bull-breeder.

From "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway

Jack in the Box named Taco Bell Chief Brand Officer Taylor Montgomery to the newly created position of president, saying it expects him to become CEO within the next 12 months.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

"Spider-Man: Brand New Day" continued dominating the North American box office, drawing an additional $70 million in ticket sales on its third weekend on the big screen, according to industry estimates.

From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026

Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige capped off his portion of the presentation by formally introducing Sadie Sink, whose role in “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” had been kept under wraps before its release, as Jean Grey.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026

Caitlin Fowler and Morgan Brand said they were excited and planned to go to Queen's Park to watch the solar eclipse on Wednesday evening.

From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026

Perhaps Brand and Cooke, lacking interests that could absorb them, fuming like children over trifles, simply invented their hate of each other in order to have something to feel deeply about.

From "Black Boy" by Richard Wright

The most successful brands, she says, are consistent in the image that they present - and a return to the UK risks looking like another U-turn.

From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026

Will “maxxing” and “mogging” lose their punch as brands borrow the language?

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

Even other brands were reaming Instagram for the change.

From Slate ● Aug. 21, 2026

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday urged consumers not to eat alfalfa sprouts grown by Everything Sprouts and sold under the Calco and Everything Sprouts brands.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

He comes in with a vintage-looking electric guitar—I don’t know brands, but it looks like something the Beatles would have had—and plugs it into his amp on a chair before we file in.

From "It’s Kind of a Funny Story" by Ned Vizzini

After his 2018 fairytale Windsor Castle wedding -- watched around the world -- he and Meghan were touted as future monarchy rejuvenators, branded the "fab four" alongside William and Kate.

From Barron's ● Aug. 23, 2026

News Center that branded itself as a news source for Chinese Americans, according to a plea agreement filed in federal court.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026

The States said this should be "a welcome relief" to families as some schools require 11 branded items of clothing, costing hundreds to pay for uniform, PE kit and equipment.

From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026

She can sell out stadium tours, inspire fans to buy branded merchandise and replicate her outfits, and even boost entire economies.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026

How do I live with this, being branded?

From "Burning Blue" by Paul Griffin

Shoes are the focus of works by Annette Kelm and Wendy Red Star, each of whom look at the ways manufacturing, branding and history are tied up in these objects.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

As part of the new proposals, packs would need to be plain with strict limits on branding and only simple flavour descriptions like "apple" or "cola" used.

From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026

And framing himself as a victim who has lost his job, son, and faith due to his convictions reads as much like branding and mythologizing as it does truth-telling.

From Slate ● Aug. 20, 2026

Writer-director Nicolas Winding Refn — “NWR,” as he’s taken to branding himself — isn’t exactly known for his subtlety.

From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2026

He leaned forward and lightly kissed my cheek, right on the branding mark.

From "Chains" by Laurie Halse Anderson

Related Words

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