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PlainSpell

windshield

/wɪnˈʃiːld/noun, verb

windshield is a noun meaning “A transparent screen made of glass, located at the front and back of a vehicle in front of its occupants to protect them from the wind force…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled W-I-N-D-S-H-I-E-L-D and has 2 syllables, and it appears 2.6 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of windshield is windshields.

What does windshield mean?

noun

  1. 1

    CanadaUSA transparent screen made of glass, located at the front and back of a vehicle in front of its occupants to protect them from the wind force generated by the vehicle's speed and inclement weather.

    The freezing rain covered our windshield with ice and we couldn't see a thing.

  2. 2

    A cover for a microphone to exclude airy noises such as wind and breathing.

  3. 3

    A lightweight aerodynamic fairing mounted on the nose of an armor-piercing shell to reduce drag and increase range.

verb

  1. 1

    To install a windshield on.

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

How do you pronounce windshield?

  • /wɪnˈʃiːld/

Windshield has 2 syllables (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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vininn126-windshield.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of windshield

  • windshields plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • windshielding participle, present
  • windshielded participle, past

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

How common is windshield?

Windshield appears 2.6 times per million words in written English, the 16,896th 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 windshield

Also written: wind shield (one word or two).

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Windshield in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchpare-brise, parebrise (screen located in front of a vehicle to protect…), bonnette anti-vent (cover for a microphone to exclude airy noises)
GermanWindschutzscheibe (screen located in front of a vehicle to protect…), Windschutz, Mikrofon-Windschutz (cover for a microphone to exclude airy noises)
Portuguesepara-brisa, para-brisas (screen located in front of a vehicle to protect…), pára-brisas (cover for a microphone to exclude airy noises)
Spanishparabrisas, guinshil (screen located in front of a vehicle to protect…), cortavientos (cover for a microphone to exclude airy noises)

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 windshield come from?

From wind + shield.

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