something formed by or as if by weaving or interweaving.
a thin, silken material spun by spiders and the larvae of some insects, as the webworms and tent caterpillars; cobweb.
Textiles.
a woven fabric, especially a whole piece of cloth in the course of being woven or after it comes from the loom.
the flat woven strip, without pile, often found at one or both ends of an Oriental rug.
something resembling woven material, especially something having an interlaced or latticelike appearance.
He looked up at the web of branches of the old tree.
an intricate set or pattern of circumstances, facts, etc..
The thief was convicted by a web of evidence. Who can understand the web of life?
something that snares or entangles; a trap.
innocent travelers caught in the web of international terrorism.
Zoology. a membrane that connects the digits of an animal, as the toes of aquatic birds.
Ornithology.
the series of barbs on each side of the shaft of a feather.
the series on both sides, collectively.
an integral or separate part of a beam, rail, truss, or the like, that forms a continuous, flat, narrow, rigid connection between two stronger, broader parallel parts, as the flanges of a structural shape, the head and foot of a rail, or the upper and lower chords of a truss.
Machinery. an arm of a crank, usually one of a pair, holding one end of a crankpin at its outer end.
Architecture. (in a vault) any surface framed by ribbing.
a large roll of paper, as for continuous feeding of a web press.
a network of interlinked stations, services, communications, etc., covering a region or country.
Informal. a network of radio or television broadcasting stations.
Digital Technology. Sometimes Web World Wide Web (preceded by the, except when used before a noun).
to cover with or as if with a web; envelop.
to ensnare or entrap.
any structure, construction, fabric, etc, formed by or as if by weaving or interweaving
a mesh of fine tough scleroprotein threads built by a spider from a liquid secreted from its spinnerets and used to trap insects See also cobweb
a similar network of threads spun by certain insect larvae, such as the silkworm
a fabric, esp one in the process of being woven
a membrane connecting the toes of some aquatic birds or the digits of such aquatic mammals as the otter
the vane of a bird's feather
architect the surface of a ribbed vault that lies between the ribs
the central section of an I-beam or H-beam that joins the two flanges of the beam
any web-shaped part of a casting used for reinforcement
the radial portion of a crank that connects the crankpin to the crankshaft
a thin piece of superfluous material left attached to a forging; fin
a continuous strip of paper as formed on a paper machine or fed from a reel into some printing presses
( as modifier )
web offset
a web press
the woven edge, without pile, of some carpets
(often capital) short for World Wide Web
( as modifier )
a web site
web pages
any structure, construction, etc, that is intricately formed or complex
a web of intrigue
(tr) to cover with or as if with a web
(tr) to entangle or ensnare
(intr) to construct a web
A structure of fine, elastic, threadlike filaments characteristically spun by spiders to catch insect prey. The larvae of certain insects also weave webs that serve as protective shelters for feeding and may include leaves or other plant parts.
A membrane or fold of skin connecting the toes in certain animals, especially ones that swim, such as water birds and otters. The web improves the ability of the foot to push against water.
The World Wide Web.
First recorded before 900; Middle English (noun), Old English; cognate with Dutch, Low German webbe, Old Norse vefr; akin to weave
A web is a sticky pattern of threads woven by a spider, or something similar that appears to be woven together. Your little sister might weave a web of yarn into a potholder. Some webs are literally woven — of thread, yarn, ropes, or any other strands of material. Other webs are more figurative, like the web of connections between people who work in the same field or the web of rules and regulations attached to filing your income tax return. There's also the World Wide Web, known as the Internet or just "the Web," named this way because it's a web-like series of interconnected documents and links.
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Anthropic has agreed to spend more than $100 billion on Amazon Web Services over the next decade, and AWS customers can now access the Claude platform directly without additional contracts or billing relationships.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 4, 2026
One, shared by cybersecurity researcher Dark Web Informer on X, showed someone searching for the username of an account they wished to gain access to as part of Instagram's recovery process.
From BBC • Jun. 2, 2026
That would be a direct attack on the heart of Amazon’s big moneymaker, cloud-computing business Amazon Web Services.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 31, 2026
Snowflake expanded ties to Amazon Web Services with a $6 billion deal that will make it one of the cloud giant’s biggest customers for its general-purpose Graviton processor chips used inside AWS data centers.
From Barron's • May 28, 2026
"Maybe Henderson read about our case on Deirdre's Web site," she said.
From "Scream for Ice Cream: Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew, #2" by Carolyn Keene
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.
