Sprain

//spɹeɪn// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act or result of spraining; lameness caused by spraining

    "a bad sprain of the wrist"

  2. 2
    a painful injury to a joint caused by a sudden wrenching of its ligaments wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To weaken, as a joint, ligament, or muscle, by sudden and excessive exertion, as by wrenching; to overstrain, or stretch injuriously, but without luxation

    "He sprained his knee after falling off the bicycle."

  2. 2
    twist suddenly so as to sprain wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
twisttwistwrenchabradebarkblemish

Example

More examples

"A sprain like this should heal within a week or so."

Etymology

1601, verb attested 1622. Possibly borrowed from Middle French espraindre (“to press out, to wring”), from Latin exprimere, in which case cognate to express.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.