wend
verb (used with object)
to pursue or direct (one's way).
wend
1 American
[wend]
/ wɛnd /
verb (used with object)
-
wends,
present (3rd person singular)
-
wended,
past participle, past
-
went,
past (Archaic)
-
wending
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
wends,
present (3rd person singular)
-
wended,
past participle, past
-
went,
past (Archaic)
-
wending
present participle
Wend
2
American
[wend]
/ wɛnd /
noun
Wend
1
British
/ wɛnd /
noun
wend
2
British
/ wɛnd /
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
wendsimple
-
wendssimple
-
have wendedperfect
-
has wendedperfect
-
am wendingprogressive
-
are wendingprogressive
-
is wendingprogressive
-
have been wendingperfect progressive
-
has been wendingperfect progressive
Past
-
wendedsimple
-
wentsimple
-
had wendedperfect
-
was wendingprogressive
-
were wendingprogressive
-
had been wendingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of wend1
before 900; Middle English wenden, Old English wendan; cognate with Dutch, German wenden, Gothic wandjan, causative of -windan to wind 2
Origin of Wend2
1780–90; < German Wende, Old High German Winida; cognate with Old English Winedas (plural)
Explanation
To wend means to choose a path and then walk that path. The path may not always be the fastest route, but at least it should get you there. Eventually. It’s always good to have a goal, and that’s true with wending. You know where you want to go, so you wend your way there. You’ll notice that wend looks like the verb wind, and they both come from the same Old English wendan, which means “to turn, depart.” When you wend, you may take curvy, windy roads, a more scenic route, some detours and side alleys, just for fun. But don’t wend too much or you’ll be late.
Vocabulary lists containing wend
A Midsummer Night's Dream
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Excerpt from "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"
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100 SAT words Beginning with W,X,Y, and Z
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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.
See Examples For:
One mitigating fact is that there was virtually no way that disqualification could wend its way through the regulatory process in time to disqualify Justify before the first Saturday in May.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 2, 2023
Thin ribbons of silky scrambled egg, cut from an egg crêpe, wend their way through the dish, too, and you can order another protein à la phad Thai, but you don’t need to.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 26, 2023
The Afghans wend through about a dozen countries, for months or longer.
From New York Times ● May 21, 2023
Currently, most designs for Arctic shipping routes have vessels sticking close to the edge of the ice as they wend their way through the sea.
From Scientific American ● May 1, 2023
With that, he turned about and began to wend his way through back streets and dark alleys, his lantern barely showing the way through the dark and rain.
From "Crispin: The Cross of Lead" by Avi
The Wend Collective is a philanthropic group launched by Walmart magnate James Walton.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 12, 2022
In the two-channel “To Wend One’s Way…,” McClodden is seen alone in her studio, walking but getting nowhere — Naumanesque activity, pursued on a treadmill it seems.
From New York Times ● Aug. 18, 2022
For Trish Wend, a 62-year-old painter from Ridgefield, Conn., the break from all of that was “so freeing, and so powerful” that it prompted her to make a larger life change.
From Washington Post ● May 22, 2021
Skagit County Sheriff’s Office Chief of Corrections Charlie Wend said the incident occurred about 5:30 p.m.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 17, 2016
Indeed, Countess Marie, only daughter of Prince Bismarck, was at one time betrothed to Wend, the youngest of the three Eulenburg brothers.
From The Secret Memoirs of the Courts of Europe: William II, Germany; Francis Joseph, Austria-Hungary, Volume I. (of 2) by Mme. la Marquise de Fontenoy
The exhibition, which wends through eight contiguous galleries, begins with a visual overture, seven pictures that preview what’s ahead.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
As the case wends its way through the courts, the government has not yet made good on its threat to break up NCAR's various labs, which currently employ about 800 people.
From Barron's ● Jun. 1, 2026
This particular stretch of track, which wends north from the town of Dunsmuir, is a renegade route for hikers to one of northern California’s most enchanting natural sights, Mossbrae Falls.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2025
There, the Dnipro now wends through a mucky patchwork of about 9000 newly formed small lakes and ephemeral ponds.
From Science Magazine ● Jan. 3, 2024
Arthur was crying the same wends again and again, holding gruff Gawaine by the elbow and putting them into his ear.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
The SUV drove me through an airport security gate and wended its way past rows of planes and runways before dropping me alongside the American Airlines 737 taking me to Phoenix.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
Khamenei's funeral procession wended its way slowly through central Tehran, from Imam Hossein Square in the east to Azadi Square in the west, on the last of three days of public mourning in the capital.
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026
Servers wended through the crowd, carrying hors d’oeuvres trays of crescent duck and caviar as they passed shelves lined with rare editions of works by Rousseau and Voltaire.
From New York Times ● Mar. 5, 2024
Brian Brase, a convoy spokesperson and truck driver based in Ohio, said the motorcade was expected to grow as the trucks wended across the country.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 26, 2022
The citizens watched keenly where we wended; for we did not return to our warehouse barracks; but we were mustered upon the docks, where boats and transports were in a readiness.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
Basu said that when the power went out earlier in the evening, she was in the shower and believed the outage could have been due to a short circuit in her older building.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026
And it went out of its way to say that it was not ruling on the merits of the president’s authority to issue these rules.
From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2026
Nepal has seen continued protests since the girl was found dead last week, three days after she went missing in Madhesh province.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham on Monday strummed on a guitar and also went to a shopping mall destroyed by a Russian strike as he visited Kyiv to show his country's support for Ukraine.
From Barron's ● Aug. 24, 2026
But there were a few moments, when we went into town, at powwow, or just around, when I noticed someone.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
A proposal to ban social media for children under 15 is currently wending its way through parliament in France.
From Barron's ● Jul. 12, 2026
Mr. Crytzer’s narrative hums along with the National Road’s traffic as he colorfully describes Pony Express riders, stagecoaches, Conestoga wagons and many thousands of migrants wending ever westward, feeding the nation’s economic and territorial growth.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
A mammoth multidistrict suit against Snap, Meta, ByteDance and Google on behalf of American teens is currently wending its way through the Northern District of California.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 22, 2025
Of the thousands of interorgan messages wending through the body, a few stand out as the most promising for therapies.
From Science Magazine ● May 22, 2024
Heaving dirt from a pit, I would hear on another man’s breath some song half-sung in time to his swing; the engineers called their instructions, wending their way through our deep, loamy fosses.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson
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.
