wrist
/ɹɪst/noun, verb
wrist is spelled W-R-I-S-T: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 10 times per million words in written English, the 7,009th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, wrist means “The complex joint between forearm bones, carpus, and metacarpals where the hand is attached to the arm; the carpus in a narrow sense” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of wrist is wrists.
How many letters and syllables are in wrist?
| Letters | 5: W-R-I-S-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 10 times per million words; the 7,009th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
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 wrist?
Wrist appears 10 times per million words in written English, the 7,009th 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 wrist?
- /ɹɪst/
Wrist 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-wrist.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of wrist
- wrists plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- wristing participle, present
- wristed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does wrist mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The complex joint between forearm bones, carpus, and metacarpals where the hand is attached to the arm; the carpus in a narrow sense.
With a flick of the wrist, he threw the frisbee to a team-mate.
- 2
A stud or pin which forms a journal.
verb
- 1
To hit a wrist shot.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Wrist in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense joint where the hand is attached to the arm:
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 wrist come from?
From Middle English wrist, from Old English wrist, from Proto-West Germanic *wristu, from Proto-Germanic *wristuz (compare Old Frisian wrist, Low German Wrist, German Rist (“back of hand, instep, withers”), Swedish vrist), from Proto-Germanic *wrīþaną (“to twist, turn”). More at writhe.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).