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

In a nation that invented the likes of the frozen TV dinner, Childers is winding back the clock with technology that would be recognizable to farmers two millenia ago.

From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026

"We expect to see many public miners continue winding down their Bitcoin mining hardware in the coming quarters," he said.

From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026

And as it bookends a summer led by “Obsession” and “Backrooms” fervor, with studios clamoring to find the next Gen Z wunderkind, Ullom quietly but consistently surpasses his peers at every winding turn.

From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2026

England’s Hever Castle & Gardens presents an exhibition following the winding, often ambiguous visual record of Henry VIII’s second wife—and the first to be beheaded.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026

But as they reached the long, winding drive that led to the Carutherses’ house, Ophie couldn’t shake her overwhelming sense of dread.

From "Ophie's Ghosts" by Justina Ireland

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

The din was on the causeway: a horse was coming; the windings of the lane yet hid it, but it approached.

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë

Related Words

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