The word meander has a number of senses.
- A bend in a river, also known as an oxbow loop . This usage derives from the name of the Maeander River in Turkey.
- To meander: For a river to behave like the river Maeander. This is a term for the snaking movement a river may make as it runs through a flat plain with easily erosible soils.
- To walk at a lazy pace and not usually in a straight line, like a meandering river.
- In art and architecture, a meander is a decorative border constructed from a continuous line, shaped into a repeated motif. See meander (architecture).
- In mathematics, a meander is a self-avoiding closed curve which intersects a line a number of times (see meander (mathematics)).