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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

wade.

To walk through water or something that impedes progress.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/weɪd//wed/Scotland

  1. To walk through water or something that impedes progress.

    intransitive

  2. To progress with difficulty.

    intransitive
    to wade through a dull book

  3. To walk through (water or similar impediment); to pass through by wading.

    transitive
    wading swamps and rivers

  4. To gleam intermittently through clouds or mist.

  5. To enter recklessly.

    intransitive
    to wade into a fight or a debate
Where this word comes from

From Middle English waden, from Old English wadan, from Proto-West Germanic *wadan, from Proto-Germanic *wadaną (“to go, pass through”), from Proto-Indo-European *weh₂dʰ- (“to go”). Cognates include Saterland Frisian waadje (“to wade”), West Frisian wâdzje (“to wade”), Dutch waden (“to wade”), German Low German waden (“to wade”), German waten (“to wade”), Danish vade (“to wade”), Swedish vada (“to wade”), Icelandic vaða (“to wade”), and Latin vādō (“go, walk; rush”).

noun/weɪd//wed/Scotland

  1. An act of wading.

    We had to be careful during our dangerous wade across the river.

  2. A ford; a place to cross a river.

    colloquial
Where this word comes from

From Middle English waden, from Old English wadan, from Proto-West Germanic *wadan, from Proto-Germanic *wadaną (“to go, pass through”), from Proto-Indo-European *weh₂dʰ- (“to go”). Cognates include Saterland Frisian waadje (“to wade”), West Frisian wâdzje (“to wade”), Dutch waden (“to wade”), German Low German waden (“to wade”), German waten (“to wade”), Danish vade (“to wade”), Swedish vada (“to wade”), Icelandic vaða (“to wade”), and Latin vādō (“go, walk; rush”).

noun/weɪd//wed/Scotland

  1. Obsolete form of woad.

    alt-of · obsolete · uncountable
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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.