welter

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verb

wel·ter ˈwel-tər

weltered; weltering ˈwel-t(ə-)riŋ

; welters

Synonyms of welter next

intransitive verb

: writhe, toss

also : wallow

: to rise and fall or toss about in or with waves

: to become deeply sunk, soaked, or involved

: to be in turmoil

welter

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noun (1)

: a state of wild disorder : turmoil

: a chaotic mass or jumble

a bewildering welter of data

welter

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The History of Welter

Welter can be used both as a noun (meaning "turmoil" or "chaos") and a verb. The verb is the older of the two; it has been part of English since at least the 1300s, while the earliest uses of the noun date from the late 1590s. Both noun and verb have roots related to Dutch and Germanic terms meaning "to roll," and both have found a place in historical English literature. The verb helps demonstrate extreme despair in the early Arthurian legend Morte Arthure ("He welterys, he wristeles, he wrynges hys handes!"), and in 1837 Thomas Carlyle used the noun in The French Revolution ("I leave the whole business in a frightful welter: … not one of them understands anything of government").

Examples of welter in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

From the first Hamas gunshot on October 7, the Internet became a welter of hatreds, scuttering across mainstream and extremist platforms. —

CBS News, 5 Nov. 2023 Top Indian actor and emerging producer Taapsee Pannu is on a tear with a welter of projects lined up. —

Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 13 Oct. 2023 In the dimly lighted room, testimony about the hardships of crossing Mexico toward the U.S. border is delivered in what sounds like a welter of voices. —

Mark Jenkins, Washington Post, 13 Oct. 2023 The best way to get a handle on this divine welter is to take a walking tour. —

David Laskin Martin Pauer, New York Times, 1 May 2023 In recent years, there has been a welter of developments in the U.F.O. world that has brought the subject out of the realm of science fiction and supermarket tabloids, and into the halls of Congress and the pages of newspapers of record. —

Chris Wiley, The New Yorker, 3 Aug. 2023 The game is cartoonish, colorful, silly, and self-serious in equal measure as WoW ever was, with a welter of distinctions created by its venerable and beloved IP. —

Katherine Alejandra Cross, WIRED, 13 July 2023 Longtime readers said the tabloid format and combative headlines of La Repubblica, founded in 1976, introduced a new style of journalism suited to an era of change in Italian public life that loosened the hold of its traditional postwar political parties amid a welter of corruption scandals. —

New York Times, 16 July 2022 The debate swirled around a welter of different timelines for the schools, technically a state agency, from as little as two years to as much as 10. —

Mary Jo Pitzl, The Arizona Republic, 13 Apr. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'welter.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Verb

Middle English welteren, weltryn "to turn over, tumble, writhe, take unrestrained pleasure (in)," frequentative derivative of welten "to topple, overturn, fall over," by-form (perhaps from a Germanic weak verb *waltjan-) of walten "to turn over, upend, be overturned, cast, throw, surge," going back to Old English -wæltan (in gewæltan "to roll"), going back to a Germanic verbal base *walt-, *welt- "roll," found in a variety of attested formations (as Old English awyltan "to roll away," unwealt "steady," Middle High German walzen "to roll over," Old Icelandic velta [strong verb, intransitive] "to roll, roll over," velta [transitive] "to set rolling," Gothic waltjan "to surge against [of waves]," uswaltjan "to overturn"), going back to Indo-European *u̯el-d-, extended form of *u̯el(H)- "roll," whence, with various vowel grades and stem formations, Old Irish fillid "(s/he) bends, turns back" (< *u̯el-n-), Old Church Slavic valiti sę "to roll (intransitive)," Lithuanian veliù, vélti "to full (cloth), roll," Greek eiléō, eileîn "wind, turn round, roll up" (< *u̯el-né-), íllō, íllein in same sense (< *u̯i-u̯l-ō), Armenian glem "to roll"

Note: The Middle English verb is paralleled by Middle Dutch welteren and Middle Low German weltern, which Oxford English Dictionary, first edition, regards as the source of the English word. — Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2. Auflage (Wiesbaden, 2001), enters two etyma, *u̯el- "to turn, roll" (drehen, rollen) and *u̯elH- "to roll, seethe" (wälzen, wallen), presumably on the grounds that Lithuanian vélti, with acute intonation, would suggest a laryngeal, while there is no suggestion of a laryngeal in Greek eiléō, etc. For present purposes, etyma with the meaning "seethe, bubble" are treated separately, under well entry 2. Also treated under *u̯el- in the Lexikon are verbs showing an extension with a semi-vowel, *u̯el-u̯-, which are covered here at wallow entry 1. Additionally, there are stems ending in a velar, *u̯el-k-/*u̯el-gh- "to roll"; these are covered here at walk entry 1. All of these elements, as well as many nominal formations, are treated as extensions of a single root *u̯el- in J. Pokorny, Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch.