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| Word | Definition |
| wack | old name for decomposed basalt |
| wadmal | thick coarse wool |
| waftage | transportation through water or air |
| wafture | act of waving or wafting |
| wagonette | carriage with one crosswise seat in front, two seats in back |
| wagtail | an obsequious person; a harlot |
| wainage | team and implements needed for cultivation of land |
| wainscot | to line with boards or panels; fine oak panelling |
| wair | timber of six feet in length and one foot in width |
| waits | musicians employed to play on ceremonial occasions |
| wakerife | wakeful; indisposed to sleep |
| waldflute | organ flute stop of 4 feet in length |
| waldgrave | old German title of nobility |
| waldhorn | French valveless hunting horn |
| wale | to choose; the act of choosing |
| walleteer | one who carries a wallet |
| wallfish | snail |
| wallflower | yellowish-red |
| wallydrag | feeble or worthless person or animal |
| walm | to spout; to boil up |
| walty | inclined to tip over or lean |
| wamble | churning of the stomach; wobbling or rolling motion |
| wame | the womb or belly; a protuberant hollow part |
| wamus | cardigan or jacket buttoned at neck and wrists |
| wanchancy | unlucky; uncanny |
| wang | the cheek; a molar |
| wanhope | despair |
| wanigan | pay office in a lumber camp |
| wanion | ill luck; misfortune |
| wankle | unstable or unsteady |
| wantage | deficiency; shortage |
| wanze | to decrease; to waste away |
| wapenshaw | periodic gathering to evaluate readiness of men for combat |
| wapentake | archaic sub-division of certain counties |
| wapiti | elk |
| waqf | charitable donation for Islamic religious purposes |
| warble | small tumour suffered by horses under the saddle area |
| wardcorn | payment of corn in place of military service |
| warden | kind of pear used in cooking |
| wardmote | meeting of a ward or a court of a ward |
| wardroom | quarters for ship's officers |
| warison | wealth; reward; punishment |
| warrantise | the act of guaranteeing or warranting; an assurance |
| warray | to make war on |
| warren | heart-shaped hoe |
| warrener | keeper of a warren of rabbits |
| wase | small bundle of hay or straw for resting one's head |
| washball | ball of toilet soap |
| washboard | broad thin plank along ship's gunwale to keep out sea water |
| washery | location where industrial washing takes place |
| washeteria | laundromat or launderette |
| washi | thin Japanese paper used to make kites and lanterns |
| washland | area periodically flooded by river |
| wasm | an outdated policy, doctrine or theory |
| wassail | toast to someone's health; to go caroling or carousing; spiced ale |
| wasserman | man-shaped sea monster |
| wastel | sweet flaky bread made with fine flour and butter |
| wastelot | unused lot of land in a built-up area |
| waster | wooden sword used for practicing fencing |
| wastive | liable to waste |
| watchet | pale blue |
| watchglass | small dish used for holding small amounts of a solution |
| watching | fully afloat |
| waterage | fee paid for travelling on water |
| waterish | resembling or filled with water; insipid or diluted |
| waterman | boatman or ferryman |
| waterwork | piece of fabric painted to resemble a tapestry |
| wattmeter | instrument for measuring electrical power |
| waulk | to full cloth |
| waulker | cloth fuller |
| wavemeter | instrument for measuring wavelengths |
| waveson | goods floating on the sea after a shipwreck |
| waxcloth | oilcloth; linoleum |
| wayboard | thin geological seam separating larger strata |
| waygone | exhausted from long travels |
| wayment | lamentation; grief |
| waywiser | instrument for measuring distance travelled |
| wayzgoose | annual employees' dinner or outing |
| wear | to turn a ship's stern to windward to alter its course |
| wearish | tasteless; savourless |
| weasand | the gullet or windpipe |
| weatherboard | weather side of a ship |
| weatherly | able to sail close to the wind with little leeway |
| weatherometer | instrument for measuring weather-resisting properties of paint |
| webcast | live broadcast transmitted on the World Wide Web |
| weber | unit of magnetic flux equal to 100 million maxwells |
| webster | a female weaver |
| webwheel | wheel in which spokes, rim and centre made from one piece of material |
| wedeln | skiing in a swiveling motion with skis close together |
| weed | garment or outfit worn during mourning |
| weedicide | something that kills weeds |
| weedy | dressed in widow's mourning clothes |
| weftage | texture |
| wegotism | excessive use of the pronoun 'we' in speech or writing |
| weighage | fee paid for weighing goods |
| weirdward | bordering upon the supernatural |
| weld | yellow dye; plant from which it is extracted |
| welk | to twist about |
| welkin | the vault of the sky; firmament; heaven |
| wellaway | expression of sorrow or lamentation; alas |
| welter | to be in a state of turmoil or chaos |
| wen | enormously congested city |
| wergild | fine paid by family of murderer to family of murder victim |
| wertfrei | without value judgement; neutral |
| westing | space or distance westward |
| wether | castrated ram |
| wey | old measure for dry goods usually equal to 40 bushels |
| whang | a leather thong; a thick slice |
| whangam | an imaginary animal |
| wharfinger | keeper or owner of a wharf |
| whatabouts | things with which one is occupied |
| wheal | a Cornish mine |
| wheaten | the golden colour of ripe wheat |
| wheelhouse | shelter where ship's steering wheel kept |
| wheep | sound made by a steel weapon when drawn from a sheath |
| wheeple | to whistle feebly |
| whelky | knobby; rounded |
| whelve | to cover with an upside down vessel |
| whemmle | to overturn; to throw into a state of disorder |
| whenas | when |
| whencesoever | from whatsoever place or source |
| whereagainst | against which |
| whereinsoever | in whatsoever respect or place |
| whereinto | into which; into what |
| whereof | of what |
| whereon | on what |
| whereout | out of which |
| wherethrough | through which; through the agency of |
| whereuntil | to what |
| wherewith | with what |
| wherret | a blow on the ear or side of the head |
| wherry | light shallow boat; barge |
| whey | off-white |
| whichsoever | every one that |
| whicker | to neigh; to bleat |
| whiff | to fish with hand line towed behind a boat |
| whiffet | paltry person; little dog |
| whiffler | official who clears way for a procession |
| whifflery | levity; trifling |
| whift | a slight puff or blast |
| whiggarchy | government by Whigs |
| whilom | formerly; once; former |
| whin | gorse; furze |
| whinger | dirk or short sword |
| whinstone | hard and compact rock |
| whinyard | short sword |
| whipcat | tailor |
| whipcord | fabric with bold twill used for making dresses |
| whipjack | whining beggar who pretends to be a sailor |
| whippet | a small tank |
| whippletree | crosspiece of a carriage to which harnesses attached |
| whippy | pliant; supple |
| whipsaw | narrow saw for cutting timber lengthwise |
| whipstaff | vertical lever controlling ship's rudder |
| whipstall | airplane stall causing nose to whip forward and down |
| whirret | to give a sharp blow to |
| whiskerando | a whiskered person |
| whiskerine | beard-growing contest |
| whiss | to hiss or whistle |
| whistler | mythical bird whose whistle is fatal to the listener |
| whitecoat | white-furred seal pup |
| whither | to what place |
| whithersoever | to any place whatsoever |
| whitherward | toward what or which place |
| whitleather | leather dressed with alum |
| whitlow | abscess around a fingernail |
| whitster | bleacher of cloth and clothing |
| whittawer | one who makes saddles or harnesses |
| whittle | a woollen shawl or blanket |
| whodunitry | genre of writing poor mystery novels |
| wholestitch | weaving stitch that fills in a pattern |
| whoreson | bastard; whore's son; term of contempt |
| whosoever | every one who |
| wicket | small door forming part of larger door of a church or castle |
| widdershins | counterclockwise |
| widgeon | freshwater duck |
| widget | any small manufactured object |
| wieldless | unmanageable |
| wigan | stiff plain-woven cotton |
| wight | a supernatural man-like being |
| wight | nimble; strong; courageous |
| wilder | to cause to stray |
| wilding | that which grows without cultivation |
| williwaw | sudden squall, tumult or disturbance |
| willowish | of the colour of willow leaves |
| wimble | instrument for boring holes; gimlet; auger |
| wimple | cloth covering for head and neck worn by nuns |
| wincey | plain or twilled cotton |
| windbound | hindered from sailing by contrary winds |
| windcheater | windproof jacket |
| windgall | puffy swelling around a horse's joints |
| windlass | circuitous movement; indirect action |
| windlass | winch used to raise a ship's anchor |
| windle | appliance for winding yarn |
| windlestraw | anything light or insubstantial; feeble person |
| windrose | diagram showing yearly wind strengths for a locality |
| windrow | hay raked together into a line |
| windthrow | the blowing over of trees by the wind |
| winglet | a small wing |
| winkler | one who extracts or forces something out little by little |
| winterbourne | intermittent spring of water |
| winterim | short winter term at a private school designed for personal study |
| winterkill | to kill by exposure to cold |
| winze | small ventilating shaft between two levels of a mine |
| wippen | part of piano hammer raised when note played |
| wirble | to whirl; to turn round and round |
| wiredraw | to reduce fluid pressure by passing it through a small orifice |
| wirewove | very fine quality of writing paper |
| wis | to know, to believe |
| wiseacre | someone who unduly assumes air of superior wisdom |
| wiseling | one who pretends to be wise |
| wisent | European bison |
| wisent | extinct European bison |
| wisket | a basket |
| wist | to know |
| wistly | longingly; earnestly |
| witchknot | knot in hair supposedly tied by witches |
| witeless | without fault; blameless |
| witenagemot | early English national council |
| withal | besides; therewith; nevertheless; with |
| withe | elastic tool handle to save the hand from shock of blows |
| withe | partition between chimney flues |
| witherling | withered or decrepit person; an adversary |
| withinside | on the interior of |
| withoutside | on the exterior of |
| withy | flexible; wiry and agile; willow |
| witling | one who utters markedly feeble witticisms |
| witticaster | a petty or inferior wit |
| wittol | one who knows wife's faithlessness and submits to it |
| witwanton | to engage in irreverent wit |
| wive | to take for a wife; to marry a woman |
| wivern | mythical two-legged winged monster |
| woad | broad-leafed plant yielding blue dye |
| woggle | ring of leather or plastic used to thread neckerchief |
| wold | open tract of country |
| womanthrope | a hater of women |
| womby | hollow; capacious |
| wondermonger | one who promises miracles |
| wonderwork | prodigy; miracle; thaumaturgy |
| wone | a dwelling-place; custom or habit |
| woning | state of dwelling; dwelling-place |
| wontless | unaccustomed |
| wood | mad; insane; wild |
| woodmeal | sawdust and other wood waste used as industrial filler |
| woodreeve | overseer of a wood |
| woodshedding | spontaneous barbershop singing |
| woodwose | wild man of the woods, used in heraldry as supporter; satyr or faun |
| woofits | an unwell feeling; depression |
| woolage | untidy hair |
| woolbird | sheep |
| woold | to wind a rope or chain around |
| woolfell | skin with the wool still on it |
| woolpack | cirrocumulus cloud; a bale or bundle of wool |
| woolsack | large wool-filled scarlet sack for the Lord Chancellor |
| woolsey | cotton and wool blend |
| woolward | with wool next to the skin as punishment |
| woonerf | road in a residential district which uses various measures to calm traffic |
| woopie | well-off older person |
| worcester | fine wool |
| wordbound | unable to find expression in words |
| wordbreak | point of division in a word that runs onto the next line |
| wordish | verbose |
| workerist | one who supports worker's rights |
| workshy | hating or avoiding work; lazy |
| worksome | industrious |
| worldling | a person engrossed in concerns of the present world |
| wormcast | spiral heap of earth left by burrowing worm |
| wormery | place where worms are bred |
| wormil | lump in the skin of an animal's back |
| wormwood | something bitter, galling, or grievous |
| worricow | scarecrow; hobgoblin; frightening-looking person |
| worsement | deterioration or deprecation of property without the owner's consent |
| worsification | the composition of bad poetry |
| wort | any herb or vegetable |
| wort | infusion of malt before fermentation |
| wortle | perforated plate through which wire drawn to make thinner |
| woubit | a small and shabby person |
| woundless | harmless |
| woundy | causing wounds; characterized by wounds |
| woundy | excessively; extremely |
| wrack | seaweed or wreckage cast up on shore |
| wrackful | destructive |
| wranglership | position of being a wrangler at Cambridge University |
| wrawl | to caterwaul |
| wreakless | unpunished |
| wretchock | smallest or weakest of a brood |
| wrick | to twist; to sprain; to strain |
| wright | maker; repairer |
| wristlet | wristband; small strap worn around the wrist |
| writative | characterized by an inclination to write |
| writhled | wrinkled; shriveled |
| wrongous | unjust; wrongful |
| wroth | wrathful; in commotion; stormy |
| wrox | to decay; to rot |
| wuffler | agricultural machine for turning and fluffing bales of hay |
| wurley | a nest; an aboriginal hut |
| wurst | large sausage |
| wurzel | kind of beet |
| wuthering | blowing strongly with a roaring sound |
| wye | a Y-branching pipe or railroad track arrangement |
| wyn | old English rune having value 'w' |
| wynd | narrow street or lane |
| wyrd | the personification of fate or destiny |
I hope you have found this site to be useful. If you have any corrections, additions, or comments, please contact me. Please note that I am not able to respond to all requests. Please consult a major dictionary before e-mailing your query. All material on this page © 1996-2021 Stephen Chrisomalis. Links to this page may be made without permission.