Wednesday
Americannoun
noun
Usage
What does Wednesday mean? Wednesday is the weekday between Tuesday and Thursday. In much of North and South America, where most countries (including the U. S. and Canada) consider the calendar week to begin on Sunday, Wednesday is the fourth day of the week. (In other places, where the week is considered to begin on Saturday or Monday, Wednesday is the fifth or third day of the week.)Regardless of when the week officially begins, in many places Wednesday is considered the third day of the workweek, the five-day span from Monday to Friday during which many people work (with Saturday and Sunday considered the weekend). Because Wednesday falls directly in the middle of the workweek (around what is called midweek), with two days on either side, it is sometimes informally referred to as hump day. This is a humorous way of expressing the idea that it is the day on which everyone makes it “over the hump,” as if the workweek were a hill with Wednesday as the point after which everything starts to be “downhill” toward the weekend. The word Wednesdays can be used as an adverb meaning every Wednesday or on Wednesdays, as in I work Wednesdays or The shop is closed Wednesdays. To indicate the general time of day during which something will happen on a Wednesday, the word can be followed by the general time, as in Wednesday morning, Wednesday afternoon, Wednesday evening, and Wednesday night. Example: I’m glad it’s finally Wednesday and the workweek is halfway over, but that means we still have two days to go.
Etymology
Origin of Wednesday
before 950; Middle English Wednesdai, Old English *Wēdnesdæg, mutated variant of Wōdnesdæg Woden's day; cognate with Dutch Woensdag, Danish onsdag; translation of Latin Mercuriī diēs day of Mercury
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It was like Christmas every Wednesday afternoon as we shredded packages and stacked CDs, occasional stickers and vinyl, splitting the spoils and loading them into our computers — by hand even!
From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026
There are still a slew of Fed speakers on tap for the week ahead that could influence a jittery bond market, as well as minutes of September’s central-bank meeting, due on Wednesday.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 4, 2026
Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada will leave the position this month amid scrutiny over the system’s failed execution by lethal injection of Christa Pike on Wednesday.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2026
The head of prisons in the US state of Tennessee is resigning after the failed execution of death row inmate Christa Pike on Wednesday.
From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026
On Wednesday, I get a private message on Instagram to the public coyote account.
From "Wayward Creatures" by Dayna Lorentz
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
