Wean or ween?
wean is a verb meaning “To cease giving breast milk to an offspring; to accustom and reconcile (a child…”; ween is a noun meaning “wiener dog, dachshund”. Use wean as a verb and ween as a noun (ween is also a verb: “To expect, hope or wish”). They sound the same (/ˈwiːn/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) wean is about 1.5 times as common as ween.
What is the difference between wean and ween?
| wean | ween | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb, noun | noun, verb |
| Meaning | To cease giving breast milk to an offspring; to accustom and reconcile (a child or young animal) to a want or deprivation of mother's milk; to take from the… To habituate (someone) to something, especially since childhood ScotlandA young child | |
| Example | The cow has weaned her calf | And when they will fight they will shock them together in a plump; that if there be 20000 men, men shall not ween that there be scant 10000 |
| Forms | weans, weaning, weaned | weens |
| Pronunciation | /ˈwiːn/ [ˈwɪi̯n] /ˈwiː(ə)n/ | /ˈwiːn/ [ˈwɪi̯n] |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words | about once in every 3 million words |
Sources: wean and ween in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of wean and ween
wean
- 1
To cease giving breast milk to an offspring; to accustom and reconcile (a child or young animal) to a want or deprivation of mother's milk; to take from the breast or udder
The cow has weaned her calf
- 2
ScotlandA young child
- 3
To habituate (someone) to something, especially since childhood
His generation was weaned on 1980's music
- 4
To cease to depend on the mother's milk for nutrition
The kittens are finally weaning
- 5
To cause to quit something to which one is addicted, dependent, or habituated
He managed to wean himself off heroin
- 6
To cease to depend
She is weaning from her addiction to tobacco
ween
- 1
datedTo expect, hope or wish
- 2
slangwiener dog, dachshund
- 3
slangpenis
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, wean or ween?
wean appears about once in every 2 million words; ween about once in every 3 million words.
wean about once in every 2 million wordsween about once in every 3 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search wean vs ween?
“wean vs ween” is searched about 90 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“ween vs wean”, “wean or ween”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.