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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 of wooden
Examples of wooden in a Sentence
Seth Abramovitch, HollywoodReporter, 30 Jan. 2026
Back at the Village, the Tree Room (my personal favorite) has been around since the original Redford days, as evidenced by the wooden shelves lined with his personal library and collection of Indigenous art.
—Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 30 Jan. 2026
Further into the lobby, guests clustered around wooden and carpeted phone booths outfitted with black rotary-style phones, taking turns posing as if mid-call.
—Ryma Chikhoune, Footwear News, 30 Jan. 2026
The light wooden furniture, cosy space and Mediterranean menu offers a pleasant respite from the chilly damp of London’s winter.
—Joanne Shurvell, Forbes.com, 30 Jan. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Wooden.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wooden. Accessed 5 Feb. 2026.
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