* (UK) IPA(key): /wɜː(ɹ)d/ * (US) enPR: wûrd, IPA(key): /wɝd/ * Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)d * Homophone: whirred (accents with the wine-whine merger)

From Middle English _word_, from Old English _word_ (“word, speech, sentence, statement, command, order, subject of talk, story, news, report, fame, promise, verb”), from Proto-Germanic _*wurdą_ (“word”), from Proto-Indo-European _*werdʰo-_ (“word”). Cognate with Scots _wourd_, _wird_ (“word”), West Frisian _wurd_ (“word”), Dutch _woord_ (“word”), German _Wort_ (“word”), Danish, Norwegian and Swedish _ord_ (“word”), Icelandic _orð_ (“word”), Latin _verbum_ (“word”), Lithuanian _vardas_ (“name”), Albanian _urtë_ (“sage, wise, silent”). Doublet of _verb_. NOUN WORD (_plural_ WORDS) * The smallest unit of language which has a particular meaning and can be expressed by itself; the smallest discrete, meaningful unit of language. (Contrast _morpheme_.) [from 10th c.] * 1986, David Barrat, _Media Sociology_ (ISBN 041505110X), page 112: The WORD, whether written or spoken, does not look like or sound like its meaning — it does not resemble its signified. We only connect the two because we have learnt the code — language. Without such knowledge, 'Maggie' would just be a meaningless pattern of shapes or sounds. * 2009, Jack Fitzgerald, _Viva La Evolucin_ (ISBN 055719833X), page 233: Brian and Abby signed the WORD _clothing_, in which the thumbs brush down the chest as though something is hanging there. They both spoke the WORD _clothing_. Brian then signed the WORD for _change_, […] * The smallest discrete unit of spoken language which has a particular meaning, composed of one or more phonemes and one or more morphemes. * 1894, Alex. R. Mackwen, _The Samaritan Passover_, in _Littell's Living Age_, series 6, volume 1: Then all was silent save the voice of the high priest, whose WORDS grew louder and louder, […] * The smallest discrete unit of written language which has a particular meaning, composed of one or more letters or symbols and one or more morphemes. * 1594, William Shakespeare, _The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark_, act 2, scene 2: Polonius: What do you read, my lord? Hamlet: WORDS, WORDS, WORDS. * 2003, Jan Furman, _Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon: A Casebook_ (ISBN 0195146352), page 194: The name was a confused gift of love from her father, who could not read the WORD but picked it out of the Bible for its visual shape, […] * 2009, Stanislas Dehaene, _Reading in the Brain: The New Science of How We Read_ (ISBN 1101152400): Well-meaning academics even introduced spelling absurdities such as the “s” in the WORD “island,” a misguided Renaissance attempt to restore the etymology of the [unrelated] Latin word _insula_. * A discrete, meaningful unit of language which is approved by some authority. * 1896, Israel Zangwill, _Without Prejudice_, page 21: “Ain’t! How often am I to tell you ain’t ain’t a WORD?” * 1999, Linda Greenlaw, _The Hungry Ocean_, Hyperion, page 11: _Fisherwoman_ isn’t even a WORD. It’s not in the dictionary. * A sequence of letters or characters, or sounds, which (does not necessarily belong to a language or have a meaning, but which) is considered as a discrete entity. * 1974, _Thinking Goes to School: Piaget's Theory in Practice_ (ISBN 0199839077), page 183: In still another variation, the nonsense WORD is presented and the teacher asks, "What sound was in the beginning of the word?" "In the middle?" and so on. The child should always respond with the phoneme; he should not use letter labels. * 2003, _How To Do Everything with Your Tablet PC_ (ISBN 0072227710), page 278: I wrote a nonsense WORD, "umbalooie," in the Input Panel's Writing Pad. Input Panel converted it to "cembalos" and displayed it in the Text Preview pane. * 2006, _Scribal Habits and Theological Influences in the Apocalypse_ (ISBN 3161491122), page 141: Here the scribe has dropped the με from καθημενος, thereby creating the nonsense word καθηνος. * 2013, The Cognitive Neuropsychology