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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

weave.

THE SHORT MEANING

To bring threads together into a whole.

Ideas & craft

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/wiːv/
  1. To form something by passing lengths or strands of material over and under one another.

    transitive
    This loom weaves yarn into cloth.
  2. To spin a cocoon or a web.

    transitive
    Spiders weave beautiful but deadly webs.
  3. To unite by close connection or intermixture.

    transitive
  4. To compose creatively and intricately; to fabricate.

    transitive
    to weave the plot of a story
Where this word comes from

From Middle English weven (“to weave”), from Old English wefan (“to weave”), from Proto-West Germanic *weban, from Proto-Germanic *webaną, from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to weave, braid”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian weev, weew, weewe (“to weave”), Saterland Frisian weeuwe (“to weave”), Dutch weven (“to weave”), German weben (“to weave”), Luxembourgish wiewen (“to weave”), Yiddish וועבן (vebn, “to weave”), Danish væve (“to weave”), Faroese veva (“to weave”), Icelandic vefa (“to weave”), Norwegian Bokmål veve (“to weave”), Norwegian Nynorsk veva, veve (“to weave”), Swedish väva (“to weave”).

noun/wiːv/
  1. A type or way of weaving.

    That rug has a very tight weave.
  2. Human or artificial hair worn to alter one's appearance, either to supplement or to cover the natural hair.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English weven (“to weave”), from Old English wefan (“to weave”), from Proto-West Germanic *weban, from Proto-Germanic *webaną, from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to weave, braid”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian weev, weew, weewe (“to weave”), Saterland Frisian weeuwe (“to weave”), Dutch weven (“to weave”), German weben (“to weave”), Luxembourgish wiewen (“to weave”), Yiddish וועבן (vebn, “to weave”), Danish væve (“to weave”), Faroese veva (“to weave”), Icelandic vefa (“to weave”), Norwegian Bokmål veve (“to weave”), Norwegian Nynorsk veva, veve (“to weave”), Swedish väva (“to weave”).

verb/wiːv/
  1. To move by turning and twisting.

    intransitive
    The drunk weaved into another bar.
  2. To make (a path or way) by winding in and out or from side to side.

    transitive
    The ambulance weaved its way through the heavy traffic.
  3. To move the head back and forth in a stereotyped pattern, typically as a symptom of stress.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English weven (“to wander”); probably from Old Norse veifa (“move around, wave”), related to Latin vibrare.

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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.

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