for

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“
I needed more water, so I rooted around my brain for the Spanish word for water.

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Definitions (71)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (21)

  1. preposition Used to indicate the object, aim, or purpose of an action or activity: trained for the ministry; put the house up for sale; plans to run for senator.
  2. preposition Used to indicate a destination: headed off for town.
  3. preposition Used to indicate the object of a desire, intention, or perception: had a nose for news; eager for success.
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Examples (50)

  • Tanya had been enchanted by the sight, racking her brains for the French word for stop, hoping to wander around the grounds and take a few pictures. —  SexyBeastII
  • He complains of the substitution of the blind, unmeaning word 'Church'—and that even in the Catechism for the young—for the Greek word in the New Testament 'Ecclesia,' as the name of the community or assembly of Christian people. —  Life of Luther
  • The English term for the Hebrew word Tefillin is "Phlacteries," although most Jews tend to use the Hebrew term (Tefillin). —  inJesus :: Online Community :: Last posted message
  • Lyndon B Johnson also had a mutt, Yuki, named for the Japanese word for snow. —  News24
  • Lyndon B. Johnson also had a mutt, Yuki, named for the Japanese word for snow. “Johnson†™ s daughter Luci found the dog at a gas station in Texas on Thanksgiving Day in —  News from www.pantagraph.com
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This word has been looked up 143 times.

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old English; see per1 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. I. prep. from Middle English for, ‘for,’ in most of the modern uses, also, rarely, in the orig. sense ‘before’ (in place or time), from Anglo-Saxon for, before (in place, Latin coram), for, on account of, because of, with, by, through, according to, instead of, etc., in all uses alternating with its fuller form, Anglo-Saxon and Middle English fore, before, for, etc.; = Old Saxon for, far, and fora, furi = OFries. for and fore, fori = Dutch voor = Middle Low German Low German vor, vör, för = Old High German fora, Middle High German vore, vor, German vor, before, also Old High German furi, before, for, Middle High German vür, German für, for, = Icelandic fyrir, before, for, = Swedish för, before, for, = Danish for, for, för; before, = Gothic (Moesogothic) faur and faura, before, for. Closely connected with fore and for-, for, and remotely with forth, from, and far. The various forms and uses mingle, and cannot be entirely separated; so with the cognate L. præ, before, in front (see pre-); Latin pro = Greek πρό, before, for, instead of, etc., = Sanskrit pra, forward, forth, fore (see pro-); Greek πάρος, before, for, etc., παρά, before, beside, etc., πέρα, beyond; Sanskrit purās, before, forward, in front, parā, away, forth, para, far, beyond, etc. (see para-). See fore, afore, before, etc., for-, for, forth, from, far, farther, further, etc. II. conj. from Middle English for (= Danish for, fordi), conjunction, abbreviation of the various conjunctional phrases for that, for thon that, for thon the, for thi that, for thi the, from Anglo-Saxon for tham, for thon, for thy¯, for tham the, for thon the, for thy¯ the, i. e., ‘for this [reason, namely.] that’ … for, preposition; tham, thy¯, dative and instrumental, respectively, of thæt, that, neuter demonst. pron.; the, conjunction, that. Similarly ere, before, after, etc., conjunction, from the preposition
 

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/fɔr/
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by Lee Davis-Thalbourne

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