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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

wheel.

A circular device capable of rotating on its axis, facilitating movement or transportation or performing labour in machines.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈwiːl/[ˈwɪi̯l]/ˈʍiːl/[ˈʍɪi̯l] ~ /ˈw̥iːl/
  1. A circular device capable of rotating on its axis, facilitating movement or transportation or performing labour in machines.

  2. A circular device capable of rotating on its axis, facilitating movement or transportation or performing labour in machines. A steering wheel and its implied control of a vehicle.

    informal · with-definite-article
    He fell asleep at the wheel.
  3. A circular device capable of rotating on its axis, facilitating movement or transportation or performing labour in machines. The instrument attached to the rudder by which a vessel is steered.

  4. A circular device capable of rotating on its axis, facilitating movement or transportation or performing labour in machines. A spinning wheel.

  5. A circular device capable of rotating on its axis, facilitating movement or transportation or performing labour in machines. A potter's wheel.

  6. The breaking wheel, an old instrument of torture.

  7. A person with a great deal of power or influence; a big wheel.

    slang
  8. A person with a great deal of power or influence; a big wheel. A superuser on certain systems.

    dated · slang
  9. The lowest straight in poker: ace-2-3-4-5.

    slang
  10. The best low hand in Lowball or High-low split poker: either ace-2-3-4-5 or 2-3-4-5-7, depending on the variant.

    slang
  11. A wheelrim.

  12. A round portion of cheese.

  13. A Catherine wheel firework.

  14. A rolling or revolving body; anything of a circular form; a disk; an orb.

    obsolete
  15. A turn or revolution; rotation; compass.

  16. A recurring or cyclical course of events.

    figuratively
    the wheel of life
  17. The control of, or ability to steer, the course of events.

    figuratively
  18. A dollar.

    archaic · slang
  19. A crown coin.

    UK · archaic · slang
  20. A bicycle or tricycle.

    archaic · informal
  21. A maneuver in marching in which the marchers turn in a curving fashion to right or left so that the order of marchers does not change.

  22. A type of algebra where division is always defined, and in particular division by zero is meaningful.

    The real numbers can be extended to a wheel, as can any commutative ring.
  23. The return to a peculiar rhythm at the end of each stanza.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kʷelh₁-redup. Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *kʷekʷléh₂ Proto-Germanic *hweulō Old English hwēol Middle English whel English wheel From Middle English whel, from Old English hwēol, from Proto-West Germanic *hwehwl, from Proto-Germanic *hwehwlą, *hweulō, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷekʷlóm, *kʷékʷlos, *kʷékʷléh₂, reduplication of *kʷel- (“to turn”) and a suffix (literally "(the thing that) turns and turns"). See also West Frisian tsjil, Dutch wiel, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish hjul; also Tocharian B kokale (“cart, wagon”), Ancient Greek κύκλος (kúklos, “cycle, wheel”), Avestan 𐬗𐬀𐬑𐬭𐬀 (caxra), Sanskrit चक्र (cakrá); and Latin colō (“to till, cultivate”), Tocharian A and Tocharian B käl- (“to bear; bring”), Ancient Greek πέλω (pélō, “to come into existence, become”), Old Church Slavonic коло (kolo, “wheel”), Albanian sjell (“to bring, carry, turn around”), Avestan 𐬗𐬀𐬭𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬌 (caraⁱti, “it circulates”), Sanskrit चरति (cárati, “it moves, wanders”). Doublet of chakra, chakram, charkha, chukker, cycle, cyclus, and kike.

verb/ˈwiːl/[ˈwɪi̯l]/ˈʍiːl/[ˈʍɪi̯l] ~ /ˈw̥iːl/
  1. To roll along on wheels.

    transitive
    Wheel that trolley over here, would you?
    I had to wheel my bicycle up a steep hill.
  2. To transport something or someone using any wheeled mechanism, such as a wheelchair.

    transitive
    The patient was wheeled out of the ER.
  3. To ride a bicycle or tricycle.

    dated · intransitive
  4. To make a circular movement.

    intransitive
    My arms wheeled frantically in the air as I tried to signal for help.
  5. To move smoothly and easily, as if on wheels.

    intransitive
    I wheeled through the gathering, making all my appointed stops.
  6. To change direction quickly, turn, pivot, whirl, wheel around.

    intransitive
  7. To cause to change direction quickly, turn.

    transitive
  8. To travel around in large circles, particularly in the air.

    intransitive
    The vulture wheeled above us.
  9. To put into a rotatory motion; to cause to turn or revolve; to make or perform in a circle.

    transitive
  10. To reload a track; to play a wheel-up.

    intransitive
    The crowd wanted to track to be played again, so they shouted out "Wheel it".
  11. To execute (a person) using the breaking wheel.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kʷelh₁-redup. Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *kʷekʷléh₂ Proto-Germanic *hweulō Old English hwēol Middle English whel English wheel From Middle English whel, from Old English hwēol, from Proto-West Germanic *hwehwl, from Proto-Germanic *hwehwlą, *hweulō, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷekʷlóm, *kʷékʷlos, *kʷékʷléh₂, reduplication of *kʷel- (“to turn”) and a suffix (literally "(the thing that) turns and turns"). See also West Frisian tsjil, Dutch wiel, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish hjul; also Tocharian B kokale (“cart, wagon”), Ancient Greek κύκλος (kúklos, “cycle, wheel”), Avestan 𐬗𐬀𐬑𐬭𐬀 (caxra), Sanskrit चक्र (cakrá); and Latin colō (“to till, cultivate”), Tocharian A and Tocharian B käl- (“to bear; bring”), Ancient Greek πέλω (pélō, “to come into existence, become”), Old Church Slavonic коло (kolo, “wheel”), Albanian sjell (“to bring, carry, turn around”), Avestan 𐬗𐬀𐬭𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬌 (caraⁱti, “it circulates”), Sanskrit चरति (cárati, “it moves, wanders”). Doublet of chakra, chakram, charkha, chukker, cycle, cyclus, and kike.

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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.