wellspring
Americannoun
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the head or source of a spring, stream, river, etc.; fountainhead.
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a source or supply of anything, especially when considered inexhaustible.
a wellspring of affection.
noun
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the source of a spring or stream; fountainhead
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a source of continual or abundant supply
Etymology
Origin of wellspring
First recorded before 900; Middle English welle spring, Old English wyllspring(e); see origin at well 2, spring
Explanation
The underground spring that provides water to a well can be called a wellspring. You can also use wellspring to mean the plentiful source of things like good ideas or information. If someone comments that you're a wellspring of jokes, they're using the word metaphorically, to mean that jokes seem to pour out of you like water from a spigot. Wellspring comes from the Old English welspryng, which had the literal "spring" meaning. When it's used figuratively, wellspring implies an infinite amount of something: "My dog is a wellspring of affection and stinky breath."
Vocabulary lists containing wellspring
Unwind
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Dry
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From Here
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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.
Angela’s vivid mood swings are a wellspring of entertainment; Tommy associates her phone number with an orchestral ringtone that sounds like a horror movie jump scare.
From Salon • Nov. 16, 2025
The 18th-century cult of reason met its match in the 19th century’s devotion to feeling—including suffering—as the wellspring of life and truth.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 27, 2025
It is, and has been since its founding about a century ago, the ideological wellspring of modern Sunni Islamism.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 15, 2025
Larry Schoenberg said they’ve received a wellspring of support and encouragement from all over the world.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 16, 2025
Hamilton was, after George Washington, the most powerful figure in the Federalist party and, his advocates would have added, the intellectual wellspring for all the political energy that Washington merely symbolized.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
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.
