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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

wound.

An injury, such as a cut, stab, or tear, to a (usually external) part of the body.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈwuːnd/Received-Pronunciation/ˈwʉwnd/British, Southern, Standard/ˈwund/US/ˈwʉːnd/Australia, New-Zealand

  1. An injury, such as a cut, stab, or tear, to a (usually external) part of the body.

  2. A hurt to a person's feelings, reputation, prospects, etc.

    figuratively
    It took a long time to get over the wound of that insult.

  3. An injury to a person by which the skin is divided or its continuity broken.

Where this word comes from

Noun from Middle English wund, from Old English wund, from Proto-West Germanic *wundu, from Proto-Germanic *wundō (“wound”), from Proto-Indo-European *wen- (“to strive, toil, win”). Cognates Cognate with Saterland Frisian Wuunde (“wound”), Cimbrian bunta (“wound”), Dutch wond, wonde (“wound”), German Wunde (“wonde”), Luxembourgish Wonn (“wound”), Yiddish וווּנד (vund, “wound”), Icelandic und (“wound”), Gothic *𐍅𐌿𐌽𐌳𐌰 (*wunda, “wound”) (whence 𐍅𐌿𐌽𐌳𐌿𐍆𐌽𐌹 (wundufni, “disease, plague”)); also Old Armenian վանդեմ (vandem, “to destroy; to catch a disease”). Verb from Middle English wunden, from Old English wundian, from Proto-Germanic *wundōną (“to wound”). Cognates Cognate with Cimbrian buntan (“to wound”), Dutch wonden (“to wound”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍅𐌿𐌽𐌳𐍉𐌽 (gawundōn, “to wound”).

verb/ˈwuːnd/Received-Pronunciation/ˈwʉwnd/British, Southern, Standard/ˈwund/US/ˈwʉːnd/Australia, New-Zealand

  1. To hurt or injure (someone) by cutting, piercing, or tearing the skin.

    transitive
    The police officer wounded the suspect during the fight that ensued.

  2. To hurt (a person's feelings).

    transitive
    The actor's pride was wounded when the leading role went to his rival.
Where this word comes from

Noun from Middle English wund, from Old English wund, from Proto-West Germanic *wundu, from Proto-Germanic *wundō (“wound”), from Proto-Indo-European *wen- (“to strive, toil, win”). Cognates Cognate with Saterland Frisian Wuunde (“wound”), Cimbrian bunta (“wound”), Dutch wond, wonde (“wound”), German Wunde (“wonde”), Luxembourgish Wonn (“wound”), Yiddish וווּנד (vund, “wound”), Icelandic und (“wound”), Gothic *𐍅𐌿𐌽𐌳𐌰 (*wunda, “wound”) (whence 𐍅𐌿𐌽𐌳𐌿𐍆𐌽𐌹 (wundufni, “disease, plague”)); also Old Armenian վանդեմ (vandem, “to destroy; to catch a disease”). Verb from Middle English wunden, from Old English wundian, from Proto-Germanic *wundōną (“to wound”). Cognates Cognate with Cimbrian buntan (“to wound”), Dutch wonden (“to wound”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍅𐌿𐌽𐌳𐍉𐌽 (gawundōn, “to wound”).

verb/ˈwaʊ̯nd/General-American, Received-Pronunciation[ˈwaʊ̯nd]General-American, Received-Pronunciation/wawnd/British, Southern, Standard/ˈwæʊ̯nd/

  1. simple past and past participle of wind

    form-of · participle · past
Where this word comes from

See 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.