wind
/ˈwɪnd/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.84 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Real or perceived movement of atmospheric air usually caused by convection or differences in air pressure.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "The wind blew through her hair as she stood on the deck of the ship."
- "As they accelerated onto the motorway, the wind tore the plywood off the car's roof-rack."
- "The winds in Chicago are fierce."
- "There was a sudden gust of wind, on which spores were borne away."
- "The window was banging in the wind."
- "Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia. The cheapest way to clear logged woodland is to burn it, producing an acrid cloud of foul white smoke that, carried by the wind, can cover hundreds, or even thousands, of square miles."
Etymology
From Middle English wynd, wind, from Old English wind (“wind”), from Proto-West Germanic *wind, from Proto-Germanic *windaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wéh₁n̥tos (“wind”), from earlier *h₂wéh₁n̥ts (“wind”), derived from the present participle of *h₂weh₁- (“to blow”). Cognates Cognate with Yola weend, wyeene (“wind”), North Frisian win, winj (“wind”), Saterland Frisian Wíend (“wind”), West Frisian wyn (“wind”), Alemannic German wend, wind, winn, wénn (“wind”), Bavarian bint, Wind (“wind”), Cimbrian and Mòcheno bint (“wind”), Dutch wind (“wind”), German and German Low German Wind (“wind”), Luxembourgish Wand (“wind”), Yiddish ווינט (vint, “wind”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish vind (“wind”), Faroese and Icelandic vindur (“wind”), Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌽𐌳𐍃 (winds, “wind”), Latin ventus (“wind”), Welsh gwynt (“wind”), Sanskrit वात (vā́ta, “wind”), Russian ве́тер (véter, “wind”), perhaps Albanian bundë (“strong damp wind”). Doublet of athlete, vent, weather and nirvana.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈwɪnd/
- British English: /ˈwɪnd/
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Law.