Added 9 October 2026
wreak
/ɹiːk/ verb
Latin root: urgēre Wiktionary
verb Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about wreak at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
Origin
From Middle English wreken, from Old English wrecan, from Proto-West Germanic *wrekan, from Proto-Germanic *wrekaną, from Proto-Indo-European *wreg- (“push, shove, drive, track down”). Cognate via Proto-Germanic with Dutch wreken, German rächen, Swedish vräka; cognate via PIE with Latin urgēre (English urge), and distantly cognate with English wreck.
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)