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weed

/wiːd/noun, verb

weed is spelled W-E-E-D: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 19 times per million words in written English, the 4,521st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, weed means “Any plant unwanted at the place where and at the time when it is growing” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of weed is weeds.

How many letters and syllables are in weed?

Letters4: W-E-E-D
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing19 times per million words; the 4,521st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Sounds like

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is weed?

Weed appears 19 times per million words in written English, the 4,521st most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce weed?

  • /wiːd/

Weed has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-weed.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with weed

Sounds like: we'd (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of weed

  • weeds plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • weeding participle, present
  • weeded participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does weed mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    Any plant unwanted at the place where and at the time when it is growing.

    If it isn't in a straight line or marked with a label, it's a weed.

  2. 2

    Ellipsis of duckweed.

  3. 3

    archaicobsoleteUnderbrush; low shrubs.

  4. 4

    informalCannabis.

  5. 5

    colloquialTobacco.

  6. 6

    colloquialobsoleteA cigar.

  7. 7

    A weak horse, which is therefore unfit to breed from.

  8. 8

    UKinformalA puny person; one who has little physical strength.

  9. 9

    ScotlandA sudden illness or relapse, often attended with fever, which befalls those who are about to give birth, are giving birth, or have recently given birth or miscarried or aborted.

  10. 10

    ScotlandLymphangitis in a horse.

  11. 11

    archaicA garment or piece of clothing.

  12. 12

    archaicClothing collectively; clothes, dress.

  13. 13

    archaicAn article of dress worn in token of grief; a mourning garment or badge.

    He wore a weed on his hat.

  14. 14

    archaicA hatband.

  15. 15

    archaicEspecially in the plural as widow's weeds: (female) mourning apparel.

verb

  1. 1

    To remove unwanted vegetation from a cultivated area (especially grass).

    I weeded my flower bed.

  2. 2

    To pilfer the best items from a collection.

  3. 3

    To systematically remove materials from a library collection based on a set of criteria.

    We usually weed romance novels that haven't circulated in over a year.

  4. 4

    simple past and past participle of wee (a form of wee)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Weed in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchmauvaise herbe, chiendent, adventice (unwanted plant), herbe, marie-jeanne, beuh (slang: marijuana)
GermanUnkraut (unwanted plant), Gras (slang: marijuana), jäten (to remove weeds from)
Portugueseerva daninha, mato (unwanted plant), maconha (slang: marijuana), capinar (to remove weeds from)
Spanishmala hierba, maleza, hierbajo, yuyo, monte, yerbajo (unwanted plant)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does weed come from?

From Middle English weed, weod, from Old English wēod (“weed”), from Proto-West Germanic *weud (“weed”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after weed