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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.
Synonyms

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.


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.


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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Brand 2 British  
/ brænd /

noun

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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Nouns

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future

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.

Keep Reading on Vocabulary.com

Vocabulary lists containing brand

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 mark-up on football jerseys... it's hard to imagine a more lucrative brand market," said Dave Welsh from The Solidarity Center, external - a US-based workers' rights organisation.

From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026

"Gears has been an exclusive franchise to Xbox for 20 years now. It's sort of entwined deeply with the brand," he says.

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026

In 2022, she launched what she termed an upscale vodka and champagne brand, American Dream, organizing a dinner for Mar-a-Lago guests that participants realized halfway through was an investment pitch.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026

"For years, Aylo has advocated for device-based age verification as the most effective and privacy-protecting approach to help prevent minors from accessing age-inappropriate content online," said Aylo's vice-president of brand and community Alex Kekesi.

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026

Only one in ten items still remain on the shelves—one type of chips, one brand of gum.

From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

The Whole Earth Catalog, founded by writer and editor Stewart Brand, promoted ecological knowledge and self-sufficiency, but was still a compendium of things to buy.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026

Megan: Brand events in New York City are a dime a dozen these days.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026

When people are more dissociated, “they may describe feeling numb, being on ‘autopilot,’ ” Brand says.

From Slate ● Sep. 23, 2026

In addition to being in a real-life romance, the two also co-starred in “Spider-Man: Far From Home” and their latest project, “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.”

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 23, 2026

Slowly Brand stooped and tugged at one end of a steel tier.

From "Black Boy" by Richard Wright

Constellation Brands signals weak demand for two flagship beer brands, while Intel rises after Elon Musk downplays TSMC’s role in Terafab.

From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026

Chains like Snog had 10 stores in the capital at its peak and other brands like AngelBerry had shops in Bristol and Brighton.

From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026

The Marvel Comics app library will feature comics spanning Marvel, Star Wars and 20th Century Studios titles at launch, with stories from Disney’s other brands — like Pixar and Disney Animation — expected to follow.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026

Otherwise we will not be global brands anymore.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026

But he found that Nali had only the cheap brands.

From "Healer of the Water Monster" by Brian Young

Mungiu’s prickly, nonjudgmental studies of human behavior have sometimes led him to be branded as a provocateur.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026

The on-trend products, along with a push to sell directly to consumers through its own website and growing fleet of branded stores, is putting Levi’s on its strongest business footing in years, according to analysts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026

He also admitted stealing items of NHS branded clothing, a pager, and perfume.

From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026

Banks signed on to provide tens of billions of dollars in loans to build the facilities, which were branded as being part of OpenAI’s Stargate initiative.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

The werewolf might be allowed to wear Death Eater robes when they wanted to use him, but only Voldemort’s inner circle were branded with the Dark Mark: Greyback had not been granted this highest honor.

From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling

He was instrumental in creating the branding that came to be known as “Dodger Blue” and was directing the team’s marketing efforts when the Dodgers passed the 3-million mark in attendance for the first time.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026

As corporate America rejects college branding, graduates would benefit from more hands-on experience.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026

In-N-Out has an extensive record of defending its trademark and has frequently taken or threatened legal action against entities accused of copying its menu or branding.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2026

Uber removed its branding from the sides of its safari vehicles to protect drivers, guides and passengers from potential retaliatory danger.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2026

The problem is not the product and it’s not the branding.

From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell

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