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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
Examples of wooden in a Sentence
Eric Lagatta, USA TODAY, 26 Apr. 2024
Officials worried the nearly 2,000-foot-long pier — the longest wooden pier on the West Coast — might be lost, but crews got a handle on the blaze by 7 p.m.
On Friday, nearly 50 firefighters and several firefighting vessels remained at the location.
—Lyndsay Winkley, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Apr. 2024
See all Example Sentences for wooden 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'wooden.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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“Wooden.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wooden. Accessed 4 May. 2024.
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