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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

gnarled.

Knotty and misshapen.

7 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/nɑː(ɹ)ld/
  1. Knotty and misshapen.

  2. Made rough by age or hard work.

Where this word comes from

First attested Shakespeare 1603: : Thy sharpe and sulpherous bolt Splits the vn-wedgable [unwedgable] and gnarled Oke [oak]. : Measure for Measure, Act II, scene ii, line 116 Variant of knurled, from knurl. By surface analysis, gnarl + -ed, though gnarl is a later back-formation. Popular use by 19th century.

verb/nɑː(ɹ)ld/
  1. simple past and past participle of gnarl (Etymology 1)

    form-of · participle · past
Where this word comes from

First attested Shakespeare 1603: : Thy sharpe and sulpherous bolt Splits the vn-wedgable [unwedgable] and gnarled Oke [oak]. : Measure for Measure, Act II, scene ii, line 116 Variant of knurled, from knurl. By surface analysis, gnarl + -ed, though gnarl is a later back-formation. Popular use by 19th century.

verb/nɑː(ɹ)ld/
  1. simple past and past participle of gnarl (Etymology 2)

    form-of · participle · past
Where this word comes from

See gnarl (Etymology 2).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.