win
/ˈwɪn/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.39 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To reach some destination or object, despite difficulty or toil (now usually intransitive, with preposition or locative adverb).
Intransitive verb; Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "For and we doo bataille we two wyl fyghte with one knyȝt at ones and therfore yf ye wille fyghte ſoo we wille be redy at what houre ye wille aſſigne And yf ye wynne vs in bataille the lady ſhal haue her landes ageyne ye ſay wel ſayd ſir Vwayne therfor make yow redy ſo that ye be here to morne in the defence of the ladyes ryght"
- "For the glory, the power to win the Black Lord, I will search for the Emerald Sword."
- "I well may gang out, love, but I'll never win home."
- "No sooner did I get my freedom than my footsteps began to be dogged by the spies of the Iron Heel. It was necessary that they should be thrown off the track, and that I should win to California."
- "As this position was vulnerable, a trench was immediately begun from the junction of the Green Line with Lager Alley, back to the old British front line, in order to form a defensive flank for the protection of the troops of the 5th Infantry Brigade who had won through to their objective."
- "Parson Brooke was transferred in a couple of years to the Southwark mint, on dissolution of which he won back to the Tower, there to experiment with machinery in Mary's reign."
Etymology
From Middle English winnen, from Old English winnan (“to labour, swink, toil,”) (compare Old English ġewinnan (“conquer, obtain, gain; endure, bear, suffer; be ill”)), from Proto-West Germanic *winnan, from Proto-Germanic *winnaną (“to swink, labour, win, gain, fight”), from Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁- (“to strive, wish, desire, love”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian wan, wane, wen, wine, wune (“to win”), Saterland Frisian and West Frisian winne (“to win”), Cimbrian gabènnan (“to win”), Dutch and Low German winnen (“to win”), German gewinnen (“to win”), Luxembourgish gewannen (“to win”), Danish vinde (“to win”), Faroese and Icelandic vinna (“to win”), Norwegian Bokmål vinne (“to win”), Norwegian Nynorsk vinna, vinne (“to win”), Swedish vinna (“to win”), Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌽𐌽𐌰𐌽 (winnan, “to suffer”); also Latin venus (“beauty, charm, elegance, grace; beloved, love”), Albanian vuaj, vuj (“to suffer; to endure”), Sanskrit वनोति (vanoti, “to desire, like, love, wish; to gain, procure; to win; to prepare; to hurt, injure”).