blend

Pluralblends

Formsblends, blending, blended

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A mixture of two or more things combined together.

   The perfumer created a new blend of floral and woody scents.

   Their house style is a blend of modern and classic design.

   Similarmixture, mix, combination

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To mix or unite two or more things so closely that they form a single whole.

   Skilled painters blend their pigments to create seamless gradients.

   He blended the melodies into a single flowing piece.

   Similarmix, combine, merge, mingle, fuse

   Oppositeseparate

   Note

   The transitive verb carries the word's history: Middle English blenden comes either from Old English blandan or from Old Norse blanda, "to blend, mix". In use it takes a direct object, often a list joined by and (blend chickpeas, olive oil and lemon juice), or the patterns blend X with Y and blend X into Y. The second pattern suits colors and sounds shading into one another.

3. 3
   verbintransitive

   To become mingled or mixed together.

   The hills blend into the mist on the horizon.

   Over time, the new recruits blended into the team.

   Similarmerge, melt, fade, mingle

   Note

   Here the mixing happens with no object. Things blend with each other or blend into a background, like moths blending into the clutter of echoes or faded tiles blending with pinkish pine. The poetic past blent survives in verse, as when Keats writes "with high romances blent" in 1817. In ordinary prose, blended is the form to use.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A word formed by combining parts of two other words, also called a portmanteau.

   'Smog' is a blend of 'smoke' and 'fog'.

   Linguists track how blends enter everyday vocabulary.

   Similarportmanteau

   Note

   Linguists use the term for words like smog, typically built from the start of one word and the end of another. James Lambert, writing in 2018, points out that blends are not native to English. None occur in Old or Middle English, or even in Elizabethan English, and the earliest known is the rare, now obsolete tomaxe. Portmanteau is the usual synonym, and frankenword is a jokier one.

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