winding
Americannoun
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windings
plural
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the act of a person or thing that winds.
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a bend, turn, or flexure.
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a coiling, folding, or wrapping, as of one thing about another.
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something that is wound or coiled, or a single round of it.
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Electricity.
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a symmetrically laid, electrically conducting current path in any device.
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the manner of such coiling.
a series winding.
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adjective
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bending or turning; sinuous.
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spiral, as stairs.
noun
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a curving or sinuous course or movement
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anything that has been wound or wrapped around something
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a particular manner or style in which something has been wound
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a curve, bend, or complete turn in wound material, a road, etc
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(often plural) devious thoughts or behaviour
the tortuous windings of political argumentation
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one or more turns of wire forming a continuous coil through which an electric current can pass, as used in transformers, generators, etc
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another name for wind 2
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a coil of tubing in certain brass instruments, esp the French horn
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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."
Vocabulary lists containing winding
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:
Cottolengo Don Orione is almost like a small town with its winding streets, central square and 16 homes for 410 adults, many of whom require permanent care.
From Barron's ● Nov. 2, 2026
Schoenbrun confidently guides readers down winding, interconnected roads, bouncing between online cults and peculiar digital ephemera to weave a gripping search for truth in a time when the internet has made everything fiction.
From Salon ● Oct. 29, 2026
County Fire Department employees, agrees that the very threat of winding up in binding arbitration would encourage negotiating teams to cut a deal.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2026
“Against Killing Children,” the book’s first essay, lays out its case through a winding chain of causation that sometimes resembles a court pleading.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026
She saw leaves, winding paths between roughly sketched trees.
From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray
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
Reed, a freelance writer who “has owned a Dodge, a Ford and a Buick,” describes the novel as having a “Tolstoy-sized cast” and “more windings than a Byzantine intrigue.”
From New York Times ● Dec. 9, 2021
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
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
