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Humans have been making objects out of wood since before there even was an English language, but the adjectival use of "wood" didn't come into being until the 14th century, and "wooden" didn't appear until the 16th. (The word wood has ancient roots, but it originally existed only as a noun.) In Middle English, the adjective of choice was "tree" or "treen," as in a "tree vessel" or "treen shoes." "Treen" in turn came from the Old English word trēowen, from the noun "trēow" ("tree") and the suffix -en, which was used to indicate that something was composed of a certain material. As far as we know, no one ever used "treen" figuratively to describe things that are stiff as a board, but "wooden" was put to broader use soon after it was first recorded.
Synonyms
Examples of wooden in a Sentence
Eric Lagatta, USA TODAY, 26 Apr. 2024
Officials worried the nearly 2,000-foot-long pier — the longest wooden pier on the West Coast — might be lost, but crews got a handle on the blaze by 7 p.m.
On Friday, nearly 50 firefighters and several firefighting vessels remained at the location.
—Lyndsay Winkley, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Apr. 2024
The nearly 2,000-foot-long wooden pier was built in 1888, and is a focal point of the beachside Southern California city not far from Camp Pendleton.
—Brie Stimson, Fox News, 26 Apr. 2024
Its polished wooden beams shone with a deep luster, and the ornate plasterwork on the walls was as clean and white as confectioner’s sugar.
—Simon Willis, Travel + Leisure, 25 Apr. 2024
Crews have finished a $19.3 million renovation, constructing a larger parking lot, modern flush toilets, interpretive signs, viewing platforms, wooden boardwalks, and wider hiking trails with more accessible features designed in the classic granite and timber national park style of the 1930s.
—Paul Rogers, The Mercury News, 25 Apr. 2024
According to an indictment, between Dec. 21, 2021, and Aug. 21, 2022, Lester assaulted Ariana with a wooden backscratcher.
—Jennifer Rodriguez, Kansas City Star, 25 Apr. 2024
On those service days and throughout the school year classes of students have taken turns picking up trash, raking and weeding beds, working in food pantries, helping at elementary schools and local nursing homes, and building wooden bird feeders and yard sets of dominoes.
—Cynthia Howell, arkansasonline.com, 14 Apr. 2024
The Logan Circle store has long featured a tattered awning, a mess of toys haphazardly placed in its display window and a weathered wooden sign out front advertising what people might find inside.
—Theresa Vargas, Washington Post, 13 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'wooden.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Wooden.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wooden. Accessed 29 Apr. 2024.
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