windsock
noun
windsock is a noun meaning “A large, conical, open-ended tube designed to indicate wind direction and relative wind speed, used especially at smaller airfields” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled W-I-N-D-S-O-C-K, and it appears about once in every 28 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of windsock is windsocks.
What does windsock mean?
noun
- 1
A large, conical, open-ended tube designed to indicate wind direction and relative wind speed, used especially at smaller airfields.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of windsock
- windsocks plural
- wind sock
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is windsock?
Windsock appears about once in every 28 million words in written English, the 161,690th 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 abbreviate windsock?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of windsock: sock.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Windsock in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense tube designed to indicate wind direction and relative wind speed:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | manche à air, manche à vent |
| German | Windsack |
| Portuguese | biruta |
| Spanish | manga de viento, cono de viento, manga catavientos |
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 windsock come from?
From wind + sock.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).