wound

¹ American  

[woond, waund] / wund, waʊnd /

noun

• wounds
  plural

1. an injury, usually involving division of tissue or rupture of the integument or mucous membrane, due to external violence or some mechanical agency rather than disease.

   Synonyms:

   trauma, lesion, laceration, stab, cut

2. a similar injury to the tissue of a plant.

3. an injury or hurt to feelings, sensibilities, reputation, etc.

   Synonyms:

   anguish, pain, insult

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verb (used with object)

1. to inflict a wound upon; injure; hurt.

   Synonyms:

   lacerate, stab, cut, damage, harm

verb (used without object)

1. to inflict a wound.

idioms

1. lick one's wounds, to attempt to heal one's injuries or soothe one's hurt feelings after a defeat.

wound ² American  

[waund] / waʊnd /

verb

1. a simple past tense and past participle of wind and wind.

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wound ¹ British  

/ wuːnd /

noun

1. any break in the skin or an organ or part as the result of violence or a surgical incision

2. an injury to plant tissue

3. any injury or slight to the feelings or reputation

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verb

1. to inflict a wound or wounds upon (someone or something)

wound ² British  

/ waʊnd /

verb

1. the past tense and past participle of wind 2

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wound More Idioms  

1. see lick one's wounds; rub in (salt into a wound).

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Synonym Usage

See injury.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• wounder
  noun
• woundable
  adjective
• wounding
  adjective
• woundless
  adjective
• woundedly
  adverb
• woundingly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• wounds
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of wound

First recorded before 900; (noun) Middle English; Old English wund; cognate with Old High German wunta ( German Wunde ), Old Norse und, Gothic wunds; (verb) Middle English wounden, Old English wundian, derivative of the noun

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Explanation

A wound is a serious injury, especially a deep cut through the skin. But things like pride and feelings can also get wounded. Wounds are serious: we're talking a lot worse than just a scrape or booboo. Just about all the meanings of this word have to do with being hurt. If you got stabbed, you got a stab wound. Soldiers in battle get a lot of wounds from enemies. If someone told you to shut up, they might wound your feelings. If you slipped in a puddle in front of your friends, that might wound your pride.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

wound wounds

These popular products are used for a variety of reasons, including to speed up muscle recovery and wound healing, improve sleep or help people lose weight.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 28, 2026

The Toulouse prefecture, which reports to the interior ministry, told AFP that a 20-year-old man was seriously hurt with a wound to his hand.

From Barron's ● Oct. 25, 2026

The River Thames wound its way through 1999's The World Is Not Enough, with Bond whizzing in a speedboat past the Houses of Parliament, through Tower Bridge to Docklands and the then-Millennium Dome.

From BBC ● Oct. 24, 2026

At the Shrine, though, each song was still a startling feat of storytelling — a raw wound that somehow hadn’t healed at all.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026

Cesium 137 rained down more than a thousand miles away in Scotland, where it covered fields and wound up being concentrated in the flesh of livestock.

From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland

While welcoming the move on standing charges, Dawn says ministers had been "trying to put sticking plasters over gaping wounds", which were "not fixing the problems".

From BBC ● Oct. 25, 2026

The Magen David Adom said one of the victims was a man in his 20s in "very serious condition" with gunshot wounds.

From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2026

With little taste for opening old wounds, he eventually threatens to flee: He has tickets reserved for three different exotic destinations.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 19, 2026

Female mice heal skin wounds faster than males, and scientists have uncovered a surprising biological difference that may help explain why.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 18, 2026

They passed men and women dressed in shabby tunics, some nursing freshly bandaged wounds from encounters with beasts, some marked by more permanent injuries Eke old scars and missing fingers.

From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray

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Related Words

• bruise
• cut
• damage
• grief
• laceration
• lesion
• pain
• shock
• trauma

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