wen
/wɛn/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.49 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
adv
Alternative spelling of when.
conj
Alternative spelling of when.
pron
Alternative spelling of when.
name
A common surname from Chinese of east Asian derivation.
Example Sentences
- "There was a Fellow with a Wen in his Neck, larger than five Woolpacks, and another with a couple of wooden Legs, each about twenty foot high."
- "When I have met an immigrant tottering under a bundle which contained his all--looking like an enormous wen which had grown out of the nape of his neck--I have pitied him, not because that was his all, but because he had all that to carry."
- "Creeps, foreigners with tinted, oily skin, wens, sties, cysts, wheezes, bad teeth, limps, staring or—worse—with Strange Faraway Smiles."
- "I am debating whether to risk scratching the right side of my jaw, where there is a wen."
- "Wen, Wen, little Wen, here you must not build, here have no abode but you must go north to the nearby hill where, poor wretch, you have a brother."
- "To find out more, I spoke with CNN wellness expert Dr. Leana Wen. Wen, a mother of two young kids, is an emergency physician and adjunct associate professor at the George Washington University."
Etymology
From Middle English wen, wenne, from Old English wenn, wænn (“wen”), from Proto-Germanic *wanjaz. Cognate with Dutch wen (“goiter”), Low German Ween (“wen”), dialectal German Wenne (“wen”), Danish van, væne.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: wen, wenn, *wanjaz