meander
verb (used without object)
to proceed by or take a winding or indirect course.
meander
1 American
[mee-an-der]
/ miˈæn dər /
verb (used without object)
-
meanders,
present (3rd person singular)
-
meandered,
past participle, past
-
meandering
present participle
verb (used with object)
-
meanders,
present (3rd person singular)
-
meandered,
past participle, past
-
meandering
present participle
noun
-
meanders
plural
-
Usually meanders. turnings or windings; a winding path or course.
-
a circuitous movement or journey.
-
an intricate variety of fret or fretwork.
Meander
2
American
[mee-an-der]
/ miˈæn dər /
noun
meander
1
British
/ mɪˈændə /
verb
-
to follow a winding course
-
to wander without definite aim or direction
noun
-
(often plural) a curve or bend, as in a river
-
(often plural) a winding course or movement
-
an ornamental pattern, esp as used in ancient Greek architecture
Meander
2
British
/ miːˈændə /
noun
meander
Scientific
/ mē-ăn′dər /
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
meandersimple
-
meanderssimple
-
have meanderedperfect
-
has meanderedperfect
-
am meanderingprogressive
-
are meanderingprogressive
-
is meanderingprogressive
-
have been meanderingperfect progressive
-
has been meanderingperfect progressive
Past
-
meanderedsimple
-
had meanderedperfect
-
was meanderingprogressive
-
were meanderingprogressive
-
had been meanderingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of meander
1570–80; < Latin maeander < Greek maíandros a winding, special use of Maíandros, the Menderes River, noted for its winding course
Explanation
To meander means to wander aimlessly on a winding roundabout course. If you want some time to yourself after school, you might meander home, taking the time to window shop and look around. Meander comes from a river in modern-day Turkey, the Maiandros, which winds and wanders on its course. Today, a stream or a path meanders, as does a person who walks somewhere in a roundabout fashion. If your speech meanders, you don't keep to the point. It's hard to understand what your teacher is trying to impart if he keeps meandering off with anecdotes and digressions. Pronounce meander with three syllables not two — me-AN-der.
Vocabulary lists containing meander
100 Words Every Middle Schooler Should Know
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The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Grade 10, List 1
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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:
Then in one-on-one calls with the team, she will ask each the same three questions “with room for the conversation to meander where it needs to go,” she said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
"Especially species that rely on more natural gravels and variation within the channel - that's the benefit of the meander."
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026
There are less rules outside, fewer boundaries: coffee dates prolong, walks meander, thoughts digress.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 13, 2026
This month’s Rafale deal is symptomatic of the historic Indian tendency to meander on defense modernization, Sameer Lalwani, an expert on the Indian military at the German Marshall Fund, says in a phone interview.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 25, 2026
For a few minutes I meander through the crowd, eventually making my way to the dance stages, where I’ve spotted Laia and Izzi.
From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir
That reminds me of Jane Alison's "Meander, Spiral, Explode," where she shows how the traditional pyramid structure plot is not the only way to tell a story.
From Salon ● Apr. 13, 2023
LB Montrel Meander was carted off in the third quarter with an ankle injury.
From Fox News ● Aug. 22, 2021
He claimed Montrel Meander off waivers from Oakland on Wednesday.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 13, 2019
Meander to the counter and order one of its famed baked stroopwafels.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 20, 2018
The feller she shot was a storekeeper’s son down in Meander, and he got to ridin’ up there to talk to her and cheer her up.
From Claim Number One by George W. (George Washington) Ogden
Basically, as the market meanders just below record highs, the internal indicators remain very negative but VIX indicators remain positive.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026
He meanders somewhat, especially toward the book’s end, where each chapter seems to cover a point the author didn’t want to leave out but didn’t know how to put in seamlessly.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
Highway 33, at a modest 3.5% grade, meanders over and along creeks that are invisible from the road but marked by riparian vegetation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
George, a top agent at a London intelligence agency, meanders through the chimeric bowels of a posh nightclub, hunting for a contact who’s got some bad news waiting.
From Salon ● Mar. 14, 2025
I try to keep track of turns, but Phil meanders around a bit, clearly trying to throw me off the scent of the trail.
From "Love, Hate & Other Filters" by Samira Ahmed
Hawking could intuit the mathematics that describes the fabric of spacetime, but in that earlier book he sometimes forgot that the rest of us could not do the same, and meandered into distracting mathematical discussions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026
There was a festival air on this public holiday as families marched and meandered in a warm winter's sun.
From BBC ● Feb. 11, 2026
As the Test meandered on a sunny Friday afternoon in Nottingham, Bashir's bashed finger meant Stokes had to spring into action.
From BBC ● May 23, 2025
The parade began at City Hall, meandered to the Walt Disney Concert Hall and ended at Fifth and Flower streets, wheeling through downtown on open-top double-decker buses with an estimated 250,000 fans lining the streets.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 18, 2024
To the west meandered the river Strom, glittering like a silver ribbon in the golden sun.
From "Crispin: The Cross of Lead" by Avi
Rangers were so flat in the Czech Republic, meandering about like confused men, showing weakness in the tackle and not a scintilla of wit.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
“A resort-style pool, tranquil lily ponds, meandering pathways, shaded terraces, and a full-size tennis court create moments of both recreation and quiet reflection, where the sounds of nature replace the pace of everyday life.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026
After a campaign over hundreds of years saw rivers tamed for commercial use, he urged a shift back "toward natural rivers featuring meandering branches and floodplains that retain water across the landscape".
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
Her one-year appointment as a visiting professor at a college in rural Greensbury, Vt., sets “Country People” in pleasantly meandering motion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
They turned off the road presently into the lane between the flower fields, then followed the meandering path into the thicket.
From "The Golden Goblet" by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
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.
