Meaning & use
wergild
Last updated
in early Germanic and Anglo-Saxon law, a sum of money paid by a wrongdoer or their family to compensate the family of a person they had killed or injured, set according to the victim's social rank.
See it in a sentence
Under Anglo-Saxon law, killing a nobleman required a far higher wergild than killing a commoner.
Historians study wergild systems to understand how early societies valued human life and rank.
A note on using this word
Wergild (also spelled weregild) comes from Old English, combining 'wer' (man) and 'gild' (payment); it is mainly used in historical and legal contexts today.
Words with a similar meaning
blood money
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “wergild”, then compare your use with the examples above.
Your draft stays on this page and is not sent anywhere.