Word: wedge Part of Speech: noun Etymology: From Middle English wegge (“wedge”), from Old English weċġ (“wedge”), from Proto-West Germanic *wagi, from Proto-Germanic *wagjaz. Pronunciation: /wɛd͡ʒ/ 1. One of the simple machines; a piece of material, such as metal or wood, thick at one edge and tapered to a thin edge at the other for insertion in a narrow crevice, used for splitting, tightening, securing, or levering. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Stick a wedge under the door, will you? It keeps blowing shut. 2. A piece (of food, metal, wood etc.) having this shape. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Can you cut me a wedge of cheese? Example: We ordered a box of baked potato wedges with our pizza, and an iceberg wedge as our side salad. 3. Something that creates a division, gap or distance between things. Labels: countable, figuratively, uncountable Example: Near-synonyms: wedge issue, salami tactics, culture wars Example: drive a wedge between [persons, peoples, camps, allies, etc.] 4. A five-sided polyhedron with a rectangular base, two rectangular or trapezoidal sides meeting in an edge, and two triangular ends. Labels: countable, uncountable 5. A voussoir, one of the wedge-shaped blocks forming an arch or vault. Labels: countable, uncountable 6. A flank of cavalry acting to split some portion of an opposing army, charging in an inverted V formation. Labels: archaic, countable, uncountable 7. A group of geese, swans, or other birds when they are in flight in a V formation. Labels: collective, countable, uncountable 8. A type of iron club used for short, high trajectories. Labels: countable, uncountable 9. One of a pair of wedge-heeled shoes. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: She was wearing wedges, and I have a horrible suspicion they were her mum's wedges left over from the last century. 10. An ingot. Labels: countable, obsolete, uncountable Example: Open the Males, yet guard the treaſure ſure. Lay out our golden wedges to the view, That their reflexions may amaze the Perſeans. 11. Silver or items made of silver collectively. Labels: broadly, obsolete, slang, uncountable 12. A quantity of money. Labels: UK, broadly, colloquial, countable, uncountable Example: He's got some decent wedge. Example: I made a big fat wedge from that job. 13. A sandwich made on a long, cylindrical roll. Labels: New-York, US, countable, regional, uncountable Example: I ordered a chicken parm wedge from the deli. Example: She hoped it wasn't a meatball wedge, because there's so much garlic in school meatballs that it might make my breath smell and knock the agent out of his chair. 14. One of the basic elements that make up cuneiform writing, a single triangular impression made with the corner of a reed stylus. Labels: countable, uncountable 15. Any symbol shaped like a V in some given orientation. Labels: US, countable, uncountable Example: The wedge is used in Czech and is illustrated by the Czech name for the diacritic, haček. Example: The tilde and the circumflex have a place in the ASCII scheme but the wedge and the umlaut do not. 16. Any symbol shaped like a V in some given orientation. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Turned V is referred to as “Wedge” by some phoneticians, but this seems inadvisable to us, because the haček accent (ˇ) is also called that in names like Wedge C for (č). 17. Any symbol shaped like a V in some given orientation. Labels: countable, uncountable 18. Any symbol shaped like a V in some given orientation. Labels: countable, uncountable 19. A barometric ridge; an elongated region of high atmospheric pressure between two low-pressure areas. Labels: countable, uncountable 20. A wedge tornado. Labels: countable, uncountable 21. A market trend characterized by a contracting range in prices coupled with an upward trend in prices (a rising wedge) or a downward trend in prices (a falling wedge). Labels: countable, uncountable