Skip to the word

Added 8 October 2026

wall

/wɔːl/ noun

In Latin: vallum, mūrus Wiktionary

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about wall at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A rampart of earth, stones etc. built up for defensive purposes.
A structure built for defense surrounding a city, castle etc.
The town wall was surrounded by a moat.
Each of the substantial structures acting either as the exterior of or divisions within a structure.
We're adding another wall in this room during the remodeling. The wind blew against the walls of the tent.

verb

To enclose with, or as if with, a wall or walls.
He walled the study with books.
To use a wallhack.
To wallbang.
I walled her. She's low [health].

verb

To boil.
To well, as water; spring.

noun

A spring of water.

Origin

From Middle English wal, from Old English weall (“wall, dike, earthwork, rampart, dam, rocky shore, cliff”), from Proto-West Germanic *wall (“wall, rampart, entrenchment”), from Latin vallum (“wall, rampart, entrenchment, palisade”), from Proto-Indo-European *welH- (“to turn, wind, roll”). Perhaps conflated with waw (“a wall within a house or dwelling, a room partition”), from Middle English wawe, from Old English wāg, wāh (“an interior wall, divider”), see waw. Cognate with North Frisian wal (“wall”), Saterland Frisian Waal (“wall, rampart, mound”), Dutch wal (“wall, rampart, embankment”), German Wall (“rampart, mound, embankment”), Swedish vall (“mound, wall, bank”). More at wallow, walk.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

Back to today's word