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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.
Examples of wooden in a Sentence
Melanie Fincher, Southern Living, 12 July 2025
Behind the arcade area is the 12-lane bowling alley, which includes interactive games, such as an Angry Birds challenge that project characters onto the wooden floor.
—Reia Li, AZCentral.com, 12 July 2025
The segregated school had wooden walls, inside and out, and wood floors.
—Hollace Ava Weiner, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 12 July 2025
Both have sections crisscrossed by overhead power lines atop aging wooden poles, like those that fell in high winds and caused the Lahaina fire.
—Jennifer Sinco Kelleher, Los Angeles Times, 12 July 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 21 Jul. 2025.
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