Vocabulary.com asunder Asunder is an adverb that means “into separate pieces.” So if you've torn your ex's love letter asunder, you've forcefully ripped it into separate pieces — and rightly so. Asunder comes from the Old English phrase on sundran, which means “into separate places.” Itis a somewhat archaic and uncommon word and most of us know it only from marriage ceremonies: “What God has joined together let no man put asunder.” In most cases you can use its more common synonym “apart" and convey the same meaning, unless you want to express a particularly violent or forceful ripping. Definitions of asunder into parts or pieces “torn asunder” synonyms: apart widely separated especially in space “as wide asunder as pole from pole’ separate independent; not united or joint Word Family ES 2 the “asunder” family Usage Examples When she falls in love with a gardener many years her junior, these outside forces conspire to tear their relationship asunder. Many a team’s talented roster has been torn asunder by a lack of health, including Baltimore and Dallas a year ago, And then everything went asunder. In the fifth, Davis, reached base on a single, and the pickoff parade beganSeveral of the poles were badly bent, and my headlamp revealed that two of the main seams were in imminent danger of being ripped asunder. © Vocabulary.com