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PlainSpell

wood

/wʊd/noun, verb

wood is spelled W-O-O-D: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 60 times per million words in written English, the 1,724th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “wood vs would” about 20 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, wood means “The substance making up the central part of the trunk and branches of a tree. Used as a material for construction, to manufacture various items, etc.…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of wood is woods.

How many letters and syllables are in wood?

Letters4: W-O-O-D
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing60 times per million words; the 1,724th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Rhymes with

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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is wood?

Wood appears 60 times per million words in written English, the 1,724th 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 wood?

  • US /wʊd/
  • British /wɵd/
  • /wʉd/

Wood 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-au-wood.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with wood

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

wood vs would20 G

Also written: wod.

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

What rhymes with wood?

5 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as wood from its last stressed vowel (/ʊd/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of wood

  • woods plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • wooding participle, present
  • wooded participle, past
  • wooder comparative
  • woodest superlative
  • wode

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

What does wood mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    The substance making up the central part of the trunk and branches of a tree. Used as a material for construction, to manufacture various items, etc. or as fuel.

    This table is made of wood.

  2. 2

    The wood from a particular species of tree.

    Teak is much used for outdoor benches, but a number of other woods are also suitable, such as ipé, redwood, etc.

  3. 3

    A forested or wooded area.

    A wood beyond this moor was viewed as a border area in the seventeenth century.

  4. 4

    Firewood.

    We need more wood for the fire.

  5. 5

    A type of golf club, the head of which was traditionally made of wood.

  6. 6

    A woodwind instrument.

  7. 7

    slangAn erection of the penis.

    That girl at the strip club gave me wood.

  8. 8

    slangChess pieces.

  9. 9

    USoffensiveslangA peckerwood.

    He further stated that "I can't remember ever seeing a wood [white inmate] assault a nigger without being provoked".

verb

  1. 1

    To cover or plant with trees.

    Their be ii good bellys, a chales, and a few veſtments of litil valure, the ſtuff beſide is not worth xl s. lead ther ys non except in ii gutters the which the p’or hath convey’d in to ye town, but that is ſuar yt is metely wodey’d in hege

  2. 2

    To hide behind trees.

    Immediatly, the other boate lying ready with their shot to skoure the place for our hand weapons to lande upon, which was presently done, although the land was very high and steepe, the Savages forthwith quitted the shoare, and betooke them

  3. 3

    To supply with wood, or get supplies of wood for.

    to wood a steamboat or a locomotive

  4. 4

    To take or get a supply of wood.

adjective

  1. 1

    archaicMad, insane, crazed.

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

Wood in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchbois (substance), bois de chauffage (firewood – see also firewood)
GermanHolz (substance), Holzart (wood from a particular species), Waldland, Waldung (woodland), aufforsten (to cover or plant with trees)
Portuguesemadeira (substance), lenha (firewood – see also firewood), bosque (woodland), florestar (to cover or plant with trees), tusa, tesão (slang: an erection)
Spanishmadera, fuste, leñame, palo (substance), bosque (woodland), forestar (to cover or plant with trees)

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 wood come from?

From Middle English wode, from Old English wudu, widu (“wood, forest, grove; tree; timber”), from Proto-West Germanic *widu, from Proto-Germanic *widuz (“wood”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weydʰh₁- (“to separate”). The spelling developed as it did in wool.

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

What to look up after wood