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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

weir.

An adjustable dam placed across a river to regulate the flow of water downstream.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/wɪə̯/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/wɪɹ/General-American/wiːɹ/Scotland/wiə/New-Zealand
  1. An adjustable dam placed across a river to regulate the flow of water downstream.

    countable
  2. A fence placed across a river to catch fish.

    countable
  3. Seaweed.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English were, from Old English wer, from werian (“to dam up”), from Proto-West Germanic *warjan, from Proto-Germanic *warjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to cover”); Cognate with Old Norse ver (“station for fishing”), Sanskrit वृणोति (vṛṇóti). Related to warranty.

verb/wɪə̯/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/wɪɹ/General-American/wiːɹ/Scotland/wiə/New-Zealand
  1. To put a weir, or weirs (in a river)

Where this word comes from

From Middle English were, from Old English wer, from werian (“to dam up”), from Proto-West Germanic *warjan, from Proto-Germanic *warjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to cover”); Cognate with Old Norse ver (“station for fishing”), Sanskrit वृणोति (vṛṇóti). Related to warranty.

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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.