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wend

/wɛnd/verb

wend is a verb meaning “To direct (one's way or course); pursue one's way; proceed upon some course or way” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled W-E-N-D and has one syllable (wend), and it appears about once in every 8 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).

What does wend mean?

verb

  1. 1

    To direct (one's way or course); pursue one's way; proceed upon some course or way.

    We wended our weary way westward.

  2. 2

    obsoleteTo turn; change, to adapt.

  3. 3

    obsoleteTo turn; make a turn; go round; veer.

  4. 4

    obsoleteTo pass away; disappear; depart; vanish.

noun

as Wend
  1. 1

    A member of a Slavic people from the borders of Germany and Poland; a Sorb; a Kashub.

  2. 2

    A Slavic person living anywhere in the vicinity of German-speaking areas.

noun

  1. 1

    UKobsoleteA large extent of ground; a perambulation; a circuit.

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

How do you pronounce wend?

  • US /wɛnd/
  • /wɪ̟nd/

Wend has one syllable, split wend in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-wend.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of wend

  • wends present, singular, he/she/it
  • wending participle, present
  • wended participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural

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

How common is wend?

Wend appears about once in every 8 million words in written English, the 82,325th 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).

Words people confuse with wend

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

wend vs wind50 G

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

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Wend in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Germanfolgen, verfolgen (to direct (one's way or course); pursue one's…), Wende, Wendin (member of a Slavic people from the borders of…)
FrenchWende (member of a Slavic people from the borders of…)
Portuguesevendo (member of a Slavic people from the borders of…)
Spanishvendo (member of a Slavic people from the borders of…)

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 wend come from?

From Middle English wenden, from Old English wendan (“to turn, change, translate”), from Proto-West Germanic *wandijan, from Proto-Germanic *wandijaną (“to turn”), causative of *windaną (“to wind”), from Proto-Indo-European *wendʰ- (“to turn, wind, braid”).

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