winding

American  

[wahyn-ding] / ˈwaɪn dɪŋ /

noun

• windings
  plural

1. the act of a person or thing that winds.

2. a bend, turn, or flexure.

3. a coiling, folding, or wrapping, as of one thing about another.

4. something that is wound or coiled, or a single round of it.

5. Electricity.

   1. a symmetrically laid, electrically conducting current path in any device.

   2. the manner of such coiling.

      a series winding.

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adjective

1. bending or turning; sinuous.

2. spiral, as stairs.

winding British  

/ ˈwaɪndɪŋ /

noun

1. a curving or sinuous course or movement

2. anything that has been wound or wrapped around something

3. a particular manner or style in which something has been wound

4. a curve, bend, or complete turn in wound material, a road, etc

5. (often plural) devious thoughts or behaviour

   the tortuous windings of political argumentation

6. one or more turns of wire forming a continuous coil through which an electric current can pass, as used in transformers, generators, etc

7. another name for wind 2

8. a coil of tubing in certain brass instruments, esp the French horn

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adjective

1. curving; sinuous

   a winding road

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• windingness
  noun
• windingly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• windings
  plural

Etymology

Origin of winding

before 1050; Middle English (noun), Old English windung (noun); see wind ², -ing ¹, -ing ²

Explanation

Use the adjective winding to describe something with twists and turns, like a winding country road or a little winding mountain stream. A path through the woods that has plenty of bends and curves in it is winding, and a river that curls and meanders down to the sea is also winding. The Beatles song "The Long and Winding Road" describes a twisting, indirect road. Winding has an Old English root, the word windan, which means "to turn, twist, or wind."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

winding windings

"One way to picture it is that the current "twists" the phase of the coherent quantum state of the superconductor, rather like winding a spring," explains Eryin Wang, lead author of the study.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 2, 2026

The winding and narrow nature of the road and the overgrown trees and bushes make it unsafe to drive fast.

From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026

And law firms are eager to avoid situations where equity partners hold on to their positions while winding down their practice or taking less work, which can squeeze the finances of others down the ranks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026

Since that unique formative experience, Bonilla has traveled a winding path in and out of the industry, which ultimately led her to direct her first feature: the dark comedy “The Musical,” in theaters Friday.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026

She pulls off the main road and turns onto a long, winding path with giant bald cypress trees on either side.

From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold

The company’s share price took a hit last month when the startup missed delivery expectations for the third quarter and lowered its production forecast, reportedly because of miscommunication with its supplier of copper windings.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 7, 2024

The extremely powerful gradient coil is the first to be made with three layers of wire windings.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 27, 2023

“Its height gradually diminished, and after a chase of one or two miles I lost it in the windings of the channel.”

From New York Times ● May 8, 2020

It’s that manufacturing agility that allowed a company whose top product was a tour-played ball with rubber windings to switch to solid-core, multilayer constructions with the introduction of the Pro V1 in late 2000.

From Golf Digest ● Sep. 24, 2019

They looked back, but they could not see far because of the many windings and rollings of the Road.

From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien

Related Words

• bending
• curving
• meandering
• serpentine
• sinuous
• snaking
• tortuous
• turning
• twisting
• twisty
• windy
• zigzag