wooden

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adjective wood·en \ˈwu̇-d^ən\

Definition of wooden

1 : made or consisting of wood
2 : lacking ease or flexibility : awkwardly stiff a wooden speech a wooden performer

woodenly

adverb

woodenness

play \ˈwu̇-d^ən-(n)əs\ noun

See wooden defined for English-language learners

See wooden defined for kids

wooden was our Word of the Day on 10/10/2015. Hear the podcast!

Examples of wooden in a Sentence

The guest speaker was wooden and uninspiring.
a movie with wooden dialogue

Recent Examples of wooden from the Web

Rick Steves In the Netherlands, to experience Dutch life through the ages, take a day trip from Amsterdam to the countryside, where open-air folk museums are a nostalgic escape featuring, of course, cheesemaking, windmills and wooden shoes.

— rick steves, miamiherald, "Time traveling at Europe’s open-air museums", 30 June 2017
A distressed wood chest cabinet with streaks of forest green and teal add an earthy feel to the kitchen where a round chandelier with dangling shells and glass beads hangs over a round wooden table.

— madeleine winer, The Courier-Journal, "Nautical flair is all in the details at Fern Creek home", 29 June 2017
The J Class Yachts Ten massive, wooden, monohull J Class yachts were built to compete in the 1930s, and three of the originals still exist today.

— chris rovzar, Bloomberg.com, "Thrills, Spills, and Royals: All the Action From the America’s Cup in Bermuda", 27 June 2017
The tables had African lanterns, wooden elephants, and floral arrangements of roses and poppies.

— trulia, Teen Vogue, "Beyoncé, JAY Z, Blue Ivy, and the Twins Have a New Home", 26 June 2017
Coach's wooden edifice might not be the easiest place to find on our steak trail.

— jared boyd, AL.com, "Alabama's Best Steakhouses: Coach's in Town Creek", 23 June 2017
Purchased in an online auction, the focal point is surrounded by five black leather chairs and a wooden church pew.

— chie davis, The Courier-Journal, "Couple renovates 1856 New Albany brewery to stunning 3-bed loft", 22 June 2017
Crate and Barrel wooden yard-dice game set, $60 for five, crateandbarrel.com.

— martha stewart, star-telegram.com, "Take it outside for a stylish summer party", 22 June 2017
The layers of polyethylene, as thin as plastic sandwich bags, sit neatly folded in a wooden box at the headquarters of World View Enterprises in Tucson, Arizona.

— adam mann, Science | AAAS, "Commercial balloons in the stratosphere could monitor hurricanes and scan for solar storms", 22 June 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'wooden'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

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.