wind
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: wĭnd
ipa: /wɪnd/
enpr: wīnd
ipa: /waɪnd/
rhymes: -ɪnd
homophone: winned
Forms: form: winds
form: winde
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, Mòcheno bint (“wind”), Dutch wind (“wind”), German, German Low German Wind (“wind”), Luxembourgish Wand (“wind”), Yiddish ווינט (vint, “wind”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish vind (“wind”), Faroese, 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.
Senses: examples: text: The wind blew through her hair as she stood on the deck of the ship.
text: As they accelerated onto the motorway, the wind tore the plywood off the car's roof-rack.
text: The winds in Chicago are fierce.
text: There was a sudden gust of wind, on which spores were borne away.
text: The window was banging in the wind.
text: 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.
ref: 2013 June 29, “Unspontaneous combustion”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 29:
glosses: Real or perceived movement of atmospheric air usually caused by convection or differences in air pressure.
examples: text: the wind of a cannon ball
text: the wind of a bellows
glosses: Air artificially put in motion by any force or action.
examples: text: After the second lap he was already out of wind.
text: The fall knocked the wind out of him.
glosses: The ability to breathe easily.
examples: text: to catch wind of something
text: Steve caught wind of Martha's dalliance with his best friend.
text: Police got wind of the lottery, tried to track it down.
ref: 1953 August 6, Jet, volume 4, Johnson Publishing Company, →ISSN, page 22:
glosses: News of an event, especially by hearsay or gossip.
examples: text: the wind of change
text: But many of those issues failed to draw Spanish voters, or even scared them, and the country’s election results went contrary to Europe’s political winds.
ref: 2023 July 24, Jason Horowitz, “What the Collapse of Spain’s Far Right Means Going Forward”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
glosses: A tendency or trend.
topics: alchemy
human-sciences
philosophy
pseudoscience
sciences
glosses: One of the four elements of the ancient Greeks and Romans; air.
glosses: One of the five basic elements in Indian and Japanese models of the Classical elements.
examples: text: to pass wind
glosses: Flatus.
examples: text: Their instruments were various in their kind, / Some for the bow, and some for breathing wind.
ref: 1700, [John] Dryden, “The Flower and the Leaf: Or, The Lady in the Arbour. A Vision.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
glosses: Breath modulated by the respiratory and vocal organs, or by an instrument.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: The woodwind section of an orchestra. Occasionally also used to include the brass section.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: A woodwind instrument. Occasionally also used to describe a brass instrument.
examples: text: the four winds
text: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ezekiel 37:9:
text: When this conversation was repeated in detail within the hearing of the young woman in question, and undoubtedly for his benefit, Mr. Trevor threw shame to the winds and scandalized the Misses Brewster then and there by proclaiming his father to have been a country storekeeper.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
glosses: A direction from which the wind may blow; a point of the compass; especially, one of the cardinal points.
glosses: Types of playing-tile in the game of mah-jongg, named after the four winds.
glosses: A disease of sheep, in which the intestines are distended with air, or rather affected with a violent inflammation. It occurs immediately after shearing.
examples: text: Nor think thou with wind / Of airy threats to awe.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
ref: 1946, George Orwell, Politics and the English Language:
glosses: Mere breath or talk; empty effort; idle words.
glosses: A bird, the dotterel.
topics: boxing
government
hobbies
lifestyle
martial-arts
military
politics
sports
war
glosses: The region of the solar plexus, where a blow may paralyze the diaphragm and cause temporary loss of breath or other injury.
Synonyms: sense: movement of air
word: breeze
word: draft
word: gale
sense: flatus
word: gas
word: flatus
word: wind
Hypernyms: anabatic wind
baffling wind
Bohemian wind
break wind
broken wind
calm wind
crosswind
custard wind
cut wind
dead wind
downwind
driving wind
east wind
fair wind
fall wind
foul wind
gradient wind
gravity wind
head wind
headwind
hot wind
interstellar wind
ionic wind
ion wind
katabatic wind
land wind
meridional wind
night wind
north wind
pass wind
polar wind
Santa Ana wind
Santana wind
second wind
solar wind
south wind
stellar wind
stormwind
tailwind
thaw wind
thick wind
trade wind
upwind
volcanic wind
west wind
whirlwind
zonal wind
Hyponyms: word: gust
word: breeze
word: light air
word: gale
word: storm
word: thaw wind
word: hurricane
word: air drainage
word: gravity wind
word: anabatic wind
word: katabatic wind
word: westerly
word: easterly
word: souther
word: norther
word: easter
word: wester
word: northeaster
word: northwester
word: southeaster
word: southwester
word: chinook
word: foehn
word: ghibli
word: levanter
word: mistral
word: sirocco
word: zephyr
word: simoom
word: khamsin
word: antitrade
word: trade wind
word: trades
word: waft
Meronyms: word: meridional wind
word: zonal wind
Derived terms: Alabama wind chime
a sheet in the wind
as the wind blows
a straw shows how the wind blows
bag of wind
between wind and water
blow wind up someone's skirt
blow with the wind
break-wind
burn-the-wind
by-the-wind sailor
candle in the wind
cast caution to the wind
catch wind of
close to the wind
down the wind
fart in a wind storm
fart in the wind
finger to the wind
floating wind turbine
follow the wind
four sheets in the wind
four sheets to the wind
free as the wind
gain the wind
geostrophic wind
geostrophic wind level
get one's wind back
get the wind up
get wind
get wind in one's jaws
get wind of
gone with the wind
go with the wind
have the wind up
head to wind
how the wind is blowing
in the eye of the wind
in the wind
it's an ill wind
it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good
knock the wind out of someone's sails
like the wind
long-winded
on the wind
on the wings of the wind
out of wind
pee in the wind
pee into the wind
piss and wind
piss in the wind
piss into the wind
prevailing wind
pulsar wind nebula
put the wind up
raise the wind
sail close to the wind
scattered to the four winds
which way the wind is blowing
shake a cloth in the wind
slant of wind
slip one's wind
sow the wind and reap the whirlwind
spit in the wind
spit into the wind
straw in the wind
take the wind out of someone's sails
the winds
three sheets in the wind
three sheets to the wind
throw caution to the wind
throw to the wind
toss caution to the wind
toss to the wind
turn with every wind
twist in the wind
what way the wind is blowing
whirly-wind
whistle down the wind
whistle in the wind
willow in the wind
wind at one's back
windbag
wind band
wind-bell
windblocker
wind-blown
windboard
windbound
windbreak
windbreaker
wind-breaker
wind-break
wind burial
windburn
windcap
Wind Cave
wind chart
wind-cheater
windcheater
windchill
wind chill
wind chime
wind chimes
wind chop
wind-cloud
wind cone
windcone
wind deflector
wind direction
wind-driven
wind dropsy
wind-dry
wind egg
wind energy
wind engine
windfall
wind farm
wind farmer
windflaw
wind force
wind gap
wind gauge
wind generator
wind-grass
wind gun
wind harp
windhold
wind horse
windily
windiness
wind instrument
windjammer
wind-lashed
windless
wind load
wind machine
windmill
wind moon
wind of a ball
wind of change
wind off
window
wind park
windpipe
wind power
wind power plant
wind power station
windproof
windpump
Wind River
wind road
wind-rode
wind rose
wind scale
wind scorpion
windscreen
wind shade
wind shadow
wind shake
wind shear
windshear
windshield
wind shift
wind sleeve
windsleeve
wind sock
windsock
winds of change
wind speed
wind sprint
windstorm
wind stream
windstrength
windsucker
windsurf
windsurfer
windsurfing
wind-swept
windswept
wind theft
wind throb
windthrow
wind tower
wind tunnel
wind turbine
windward
wind-witch
windy
you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows
Related terms: word: blizzard
word: breeze
word: cyclone
word: dust devil
word: gale
word: gust
word: high wind
word: hurricane
word: nor'easter
word: northeaster
word: northwester
word: sou'easter
word: southeaster
word: southwester
word: sou'wester
word: storm
word: tempest
word: tornado
word: twister
word: typhoon
word: zephyr
word: draft
word: eddy
word: flatus
word: breath
word: updraft
word: ventilation
word: hydrometeor