sand vs strand

sand

noun
  • A beach or other expanse of sand. 

  • A moment or interval of time; the term or extent of one's life (referring to the sand in an hourglass). 

  • "sand in [someone's] eyes" (idiom) 

  • Rock that is ground more finely than gravel, but is not as fine as silt (more formally, see grain sizes chart), forming beaches and deserts and also used in construction. 

  • A sandpiper. 

  • A particle from 62.5 microns to 2 mm in diameter, following the Wentworth scale. 

  • A light beige colour, like that of typical sand. 

verb
  • To abrade the surface of (something) with sand or sandpaper in order to smooth or clean it. 

  • To blot ink using sand. 

  • To cover with sand. 

adj
  • Of a light beige colour, like that of typical sand. 

strand

noun
  • The shore or beach of the sea or ocean; shore; beach. 

  • A group of wires, usually twisted or braided. 

  • A small brook or rivulet. 

  • A passage for water; gutter. 

  • A nucleotide chain. 

  • A string. 

  • A series of programmes on a particular theme or linked subject. 

  • An element in a composite whole; a sequence of linked events or facts; a logical thread. 

  • A street. 

  • An individual length of any fine, string-like substance. 

  • Each of the strings which, twisted together, make up a yarn, rope or cord. 

verb
  • To leave (someone) in a difficult situation; to abandon or desert. 

  • To form by uniting strands. 

  • To break a strand of (a rope). 

  • To run aground; to beach. 

  • To cause the third out of an inning to be made, leaving a runner on base. 

How often have the words sand and strand occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )