Word Definition
word
See also -word, and Word
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English
Wikipedia has articles on: WordEtymology
From Middle English, from Old English word (“word, speech, sentence, statement, command, order, subject of talk, story, news, report, fame, promise, verb”), from Proto-Germanic *wurdan (“word”), from Proto-Indo-European *werdʰo- (“word”). Cognate with West Frisian wurd (“word”), Dutch woord (“word”), German Wort (“word”), Danish, Norwegian and Swedish ord (“word”), Latin verbum (“word”), Lithuanian vardas (“name”).
Pronunciation
Noun
word (plural words)
- The fact or action of speaking, as opposed to writing or to action. [from 9th c.]
- 1811, Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility:
- she believed them still so very much attached to each other, that they could not be too sedulously divided in word and deed on every occasion.
- 2004, Richard Williams, The Guardian, 8 Sep 2004:
- As they fell apart against Austria, England badly needed someone capable of leading by word and example.
- 1811, Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility:
- (now rare, except in phrases) Something which has been said; a comment, utterance; speech. [from 10th c.]
- 1611, Bible, Authorized Version, Matthew XXVI.75:
- And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.
- 1945, Sebastian Haffner, The Observer, 1 Apr 1945:
- "The Kaiser laid down his arms at a quarter to twelve. In me, however, they have an opponent who ceases fighting only at five minutes past twelve," said Hitler some time ago. He has never spoken a truer word.
- 1611, Bible, Authorized Version, Matthew XXVI.75:
- A distinct unit of language (sounds in speech or written letters) with a particular meaning, composed of one or more morphemes, and also of one or more phonemes that determine its sound pattern. [from 10th c.]
- 1594, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, II.ii
- Polonius: What do you read, my lord?
- Hamlet: Words, words, words.
- 1594, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, II.ii
- A distinct unit of language which is approved by some authority.
- 1896, Israel Zangwill, Without Prejudice, p21
- “Ain’t! How often am I to tell you ain’t ain’t a word?”
- 1999, Linda Greenlaw, The Hungry Ocean, Hyperion, p11
- Fisherwoman isn’t even a word. It’s not in the dictionary.
- 1896, Israel Zangwill, Without Prejudice, p21
- News; tidings. [from 10th c.]
- Have you had any word from John yet?
- An order; a request or instruction. [from 10th c.]
- He sent word that we should strike camp before winter.
- A promise; an oath or guarantee. [from 10th c.]
- I give you my word that I will be there on time.
- (theology, sometimes Word) Christ. [from 8th c.]
- 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, John I:
- And that worde was made flesshe, and dwelt amonge vs, and we sawe the glory off yt, as the glory off the only begotten sonne off the father, which worde was full of grace, and verite.
- 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, John I:
- (theology, sometimes Word) Communication from god; the message of the Christian gospel; the Bible. [from 10th c.]
- Her parents had lived in Botswana, spreading the word among the tribespeople.
- A brief discussion or conversation. [from 15th c.]
- Can I have a word with you?
- (in the plural) Angry debate or conversation; argument. [from 15th c.]
- There had been words between him and the secretary about the outcome of the meeting.
- Any sequence of letters or characters considered as a discrete entity. [from 19th c.]
- (telegraphy) A unit of text equivalent to five characters and one space. [from 19th c.]
- (computing) A fixed-size group of bits handled as a unit by a machine. On many 16-bit machines a word is 16 bits or two bytes. [from 20th c.]
- (computer science) A finite string which is not a command or operator.
- (group theory) A group element, expressed as a product of group elements.
- Different symbols, written or spoken, arranged together in a unique sequence that approximates a thought in a person's mind.
Usage notes
- (distinct unit of language): In English and other space-delimited languages, it is customary to treat "word" as referring to any sequence of characters delimited by spaces. However, this is not applicable to languages such as Chinese and Japanese, which are normally written without spaces, or to languages such as Vietnamese, which are written with a space between each syllable.
Wikipedia
- (computing): The size (length) of a word, while being fixed in a particular machine or processor family design, can be different in different designs, for many reasons. See Wikipedia:Word_(computing) for a full explanation.
Synonyms
- (distinct unit of language): vocable
- (something promised): promise
- (God): God, Logos
- (Bible): word of God, Bible
- See also Wikisaurus:word
Verb
word (third-person singular simple present words, present participle wording, simple past and past participle worded)
- (transitive) To say or write (something) using particular words.
- I’m not sure how to word this letter to the council.
Synonyms
Translations
say or write using particular words
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
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Interjection
word
- (slang, African American Vernacular) truth, to tell or speak the truth; the shortened form of the statement, "My word is my bond," an expression eventually shortened to "Word is bond," before it finally got cut to just "Word," which is its most commonly used form.
- "Yo, that movie was epic!" / "Word?" ("You speak the truth?") / "Word." ("I speak the truth.")
- (slang, emphatic, stereotypically, African American Vernacular) An abbreviated form of word up; a statement of the acknowledgment of fact with a hint of nonchalant approval.
- 2004, Shannon Holmes, Never Go Home Again: A Novel, page 218
- " […] Know what I'm sayin'?" / "Word!" the other man strongly agreed. "Let's do this — "
- 2007, Gabe Rotter, Duck Duck Wally: A Novel, page 105
- " […] Not bad at all, man. Worth da wait, dawg. Word." / "You liked it?" I asked dumbly, stoned still, and feeling victorious. / "Yeah, man," said Oral B. "Word up. […] "
- 2007, Relentless Aaron The Last Kingpin, page 34
- " […] I mean, I don't blame you... Word! […] "
- 2004, Shannon Holmes, Never Go Home Again: A Novel, page 218
Derived terms
Terms derived from the noun or verb word
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Quotations
- For examples of the usage of this term see the citations page.
See also
- allomorph
- compound word
- grapheme
- idiom
- lexeme
- listeme
- morpheme
- orthographic
- phrase
- set phrase
- syllable
- term
Statistics
Anagrams
Dutch
Pronunciation
Verb
word
Old English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Proto-Germanic *wurdan, from Proto-Indo-European *werdʰo- (“word”), from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“speak”); cognate with Old Frisian word, Old Saxon word (Dutch woord), Old High German wort (German Wort), Old Norse orð (Icelandic orð, Swedish ord), Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌳 (waurd). The Proto-Indo-European root is also the source of Latin verbum, Lithuanian vardas, and, more distantly, of Ancient Greek εἴρω (eirō, “I say”) and Old Slavonic rotiti sę (“to swear”) (Russian ротиться (rotit’cja, “to vow”)).
Pronunciation
- IPA: /word/
Noun
word n. (nominative plural word)
Old Saxon
Etymology
From Proto-Germanic *wurdan.
Pronunciation
- IPA: /word/
Noun
word n. (plural word)
Declension
Declension of word (Strong a-stem)| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | word | worda |
| vocative | word | wordum |
| accusative | wordes | {{{9}}} |
| genitive | worde | {{{10}}} |
| dative | word | {{{11}}} |
| instrumental | word | {{{12}}} |
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