Showing results for "wrought"

• past participle of work.
• past tense form of work.

wrought

American  

[rawt] / rɔt /

verb

1. Archaic except in some senses. a simple past tense and past participle of work.

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adjective

1. worked.

2. elaborated; embellished.

3. not rough or crude.

4. produced or shaped by beating with a hammer, as iron or silver articles.

wrought British  

/ rɔːt /

verb

1. archaic a past tense and past participle of work

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adjective

1. metallurgy shaped by hammering or beating

2. (often in combination) formed, fashioned, or worked as specified

   well-wrought

3. decorated or made with delicate care

Usage

Wrought is sometimes used as if it were the past tense and past participle of wreak as in the hurricane wrought havoc in coastal areas. Many people think this use is incorrect

Synonym Usage

See worked.

Other Word Forms

• interwrought
  adjective
• self-wrought
  adjective
• superwrought
  adjective
• underwrought
  adjective
• unwrought
  adjective
• well-wrought
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of wrought

First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English wroght, metathetic variant of worht, past participle of worchen “to work”; see origin at work

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Explanation

Wrought is an adjective that means "molded, shaped, or manufactured." A wrought-iron fence has been shaped to fit a particular ornamental style. Wrought is most often used as an adjective to describe the shaping, altering, molding, and manufacturing of various metals. As a verb, wrought is the archaic past tense of the word work but is often confused as a past tense for the word wreak, which means "to cause damage." The confusion arises from the fact that the phrase "wrought havoc" is an acceptable variant of the phrase "wreaked havoc," but even here, wrought is etymologically rooted in the word work not wreak.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

wrought

On a Discord messaging channel, and in online chat rooms across the internet, AI enthusiasts and professional researchers have been looking everywhere for evidence that AI agents have escaped from their labs and wrought havoc.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026

Alice’s humanity is defined by her total rejection of the manufactured digital world and the havoc its creators wrought.

From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2026

He largely espouses esoteric prognostications of how 8 billion human deaths could be wrought by hostile machines, and even though many that admit this outcome is unlikely, it takes up a lot of their attention.

From Slate ● Sep. 15, 2026

Moore stepped on the gas and crashed through a wrought iron fence.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026

Queen Mab’s crown was magically and wondrously wrought so that it passes only from one blood relation to another, in an unbroken line.

From "The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black

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