weald
/wild/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.30 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
The physiographic area in south-east England situated between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs.
British usage
name
A hamlet in Bampton parish, West Oxfordshire district, Oxfordshire, England (OS grid ref SP3002).
Example Sentences
Etymology
From Middle English wald, walde, weld, welde, wold, wolde, woolde, wæld, from Old English wald, weald, from Proto-West Germanic *walþu, from Proto-Germanic *walþuz (“forest”), possibly from a Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“to perceive, see”) or *welH- (“to roll, undulate”). Largely displaced by forest. Cognates Compare North Frisian wald, walt (“forest”), Saterland Frisian Woold (“forest”), West Frisian wâld (“forest”), Alemannic German and German Wald (“forest, woods”), Bavarian Woid (“forest, woods”), Cimbrian balt (“forest, woods”), Dutch woud (“forest, woods”), Low German Woold, Woolt (“forest”), Luxembourgish Wal (“forest”), Mòcheno bòlt (“wood, woodland”), Yiddish וואַלד (vald, “forest”), Danish val (“plain”), vold (“field, meadow”), Faroese vøllur (“lawn; field”), Icelandic völlur (“lawn; field”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk voll (“meadow”), Swedish vall (“field, pasture”); also Hittite 𒌑𒂊𒂖𒇻𒍑 (ú-e-el-lu-uš, “meadow, pasture”). See also wald, wold, ultimately of the same origin.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /wild/
- British English: /wiːld/
Usage
Inflected Forms
wealds (plural)
the Weald (canonical)