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Humans have been making objects out of wood since before there even was an English language, but the adjectival use of "wood" didn't come into being until the 14th century, and "wooden" didn't appear until the 16th. (The word wood has ancient roots, but it originally existed only as a noun.) In Middle English, the adjective of choice was "tree" or "treen," as in a "tree vessel" or "treen shoes." "Treen" in turn came from the Old English word trēowen, from the noun "trēow" ("tree") and the suffix -en, which was used to indicate that something was composed of a certain material. As far as we know, no one ever used "treen" figuratively to describe things that are stiff as a board, but "wooden" was put to broader use soon after it was first recorded.
Synonyms of wooden
Examples of wooden in a Sentence
Rafil Kroll-Zaidi, Harpers Magazine, 23 Nov. 2025
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa declared the summit in Johannesburg closed by banging a wooden gavel on a block like a judge would, in a G20 tradition.
—CNN Money, 23 Nov. 2025
One spring when Yazid was seventeen or eighteen, the Nazimuddin College boys developed a passion for carrom board, poor man’s billiards, played on a plywood square by knocking round wooden pucks into corner pockets with a plastic striker.
—Daniyal Mueenuddin, New Yorker, 23 Nov. 2025
The wooden frame has a blonde finish that adds to the light and airy look of it.
—Jamie Weissman, Better Homes & Gardens, 22 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for wooden
Cite this Entry
“Wooden.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wooden. Accessed 25 Nov. 2025.
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