wooden

play

adjective wood·en \ ˈwu̇-dᵊn \

Definition of wooden

1 :made or consisting of wood

2 :lacking ease or flexibility :awkwardly stiff

a wooden speech

a wooden performer

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woodenly

adverb

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woodenness

play \ˈwu̇-dᵊn-(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

These copper and wooden accents can be seen in the knobs and shelving throughout the home.

— courtney campbell, Country Living, "Take a Peek Inside This Adorable Tiny House That's Just 100 Square Feet," 24 Aug. 2017
Jay Rubinoff, of Bel Air, won a handmade wooden Greenland Storm Paddle for the best poker hand.

— The Aegis, "'Ideal' day on water for Harford Land Trust's annual Kayak Poker Run," 24 Aug. 2017
Some stuff that's happening at this wedding: aggressive flower crowns, a wooden recorder, Evan crying, a lotta unbuttoned shirts on the menfolk.

— elizabeth logan, Glamour, "'Bachelor in Paradise' Season 4 Episode 1B Recap: The Cast Addresses the Corinne-DeMario Controversy," 15 Aug. 2017
Be sure to crush the tomatoes with a wooden spoon if any large chunks remain.

— SI.com, "The Sports Dish: What Steph Curry, Francisco Lindor, More Athletes Love to Eat," 4 Aug. 2017
The dining room’s drop ceiling was been removed to reveal old vaulted wooden beams and glass skylights.

— garrett snyder, Los Angeles Magazine, "April Bloomfield and Ken Friedman’s Wood-Fired Restaurant Hits Hollywood Next Month," 3 Aug. 2017
Ages 5-12 are invited to make a wooden Penske truck from 9 a.m. to noon at participating Home Depot stores, while supplies last.

— jennifer jhon, South Florida Parenting, "What to do with the kids this weekend: Back-to-school fests, Monster Jam and magic," 2 Aug. 2017
BARUTA, Russia — With its winding dirt lanes framed by lilacs, quaint wooden houses and graceful onion-domed church, the tiny farming hamlet of Baruta was once a veritable postcard of Russian bucolic bliss.

— neil macfarquhar, New York Times, "Russia’s Villages, and Their Way of Life, Are ‘Melting Away’," 29 July 2017
Stir gently with wooden spoon for 25 to 30 seconds until milk starts to firm and separates into whey.

— nancy miller, The Courier-Journal, "The Mozzarella | Red Herring recipe," 11 July 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.