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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

wend.

To direct (one's way or course); pursue one's way; proceed upon some course or way.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/wɛnd/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/wɪ̟nd/pin-pen-merger

  1. To direct (one's way or course); pursue one's way; proceed upon some course or way.

    transitive
    We wended our weary way westward.

  2. To turn; change, to adapt.

    obsolete · transitive

  3. To turn; make a turn; go round; veer.

    intransitive · obsolete

  4. To pass away; disappear; depart; vanish.

    intransitive · obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English wenden, from Old English wendan (“to turn, change, translate”), from Proto-West Germanic *wandijan, from Proto-Germanic *wandijaną (“to turn”), causative of *windaną (“to wind”), from Proto-Indo-European *wendʰ- (“to turn, wind, braid”). Cognate with Dutch wenden (“to turn”), German wenden (“to turn, reverse”), Danish vende (“to turn”), Norwegian Bokmål vende (“to turn”), Norwegian Nynorsk venda (“to turn”), Swedish vända (“to turn, turn over, veer, direct”), Icelandic venda (“to wend, turn, change”), Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (wandjan, “to cause to turn”). Related to wind (Etymology 2).

noun/wɛnd/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/wɪ̟nd/pin-pen-merger

  1. A large extent of ground; a perambulation; a circuit.

    UK · obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English wenden, from Old English wendan (“to turn, change, translate”), from Proto-West Germanic *wandijan, from Proto-Germanic *wandijaną (“to turn”), causative of *windaną (“to wind”), from Proto-Indo-European *wendʰ- (“to turn, wind, braid”). Cognate with Dutch wenden (“to turn”), German wenden (“to turn, reverse”), Danish vende (“to turn”), Norwegian Bokmål vende (“to turn”), Norwegian Nynorsk venda (“to turn”), Swedish vända (“to turn, turn over, veer, direct”), Icelandic venda (“to wend, turn, change”), Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (wandjan, “to cause to turn”). Related to wind (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.