Meaning & use
wind
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
Air moving across the ground or sky, often strongly enough to feel.
Grammar: Pronounced to rhyme with pinned; often used with the: the wind blew.
Patterns
- the wind blows
- a strong wind
A cold wind blew across the empty field.
The wind knocked over the garden chairs.
There was hardly any wind, so the sailboats barely moved.
noununcountableBritishmedical
Gas in the stomach or bowels that causes discomfort or is passed out.
Grammar: British English; used for stomach gas: the baby has wind.
Patterns
- have wind
- break wind
The baby cried until her father rubbed her back to bring up the wind.
Beans give some people wind.
He sat up straight to ease the wind.
noununcountableinformal
The ability to breathe easily, especially during exercise.
Grammar: Often used after lose or get: get your wind back.
Patterns
- lose your wind
- get your wind back
He stopped at the top of the hill to get his wind back.
The punch knocked the wind out of her.
Swimming every morning improved her wind.
verbtransitive
To turn something around and around, or to twist it into a coil.
Grammar: Pronounced to rhyme with find; past tense is wound: wind the thread.
Patterns
- wind something around something
- wind something up
She wound the wool into a ball.
Wind the bandage tightly around the wrist.
He winds his watch every night.
verbintransitive
To follow a path that turns and curves repeatedly.
Grammar: Pronounced to rhyme with find; used for roads and rivers.
Patterns
- wind through something
- wind along something
The road winds through the mountains.
A narrow stream wound along the valley floor.
The line of visitors wound around the block.
verbtransitive
To make someone temporarily breathless by hitting them in the stomach.
Grammar: Pronounced to rhyme with pinned; usually passive: he was winded.
Patterns
- be winded by something
The ball hit him in the stomach and winded him.
She was winded after the fall.
The hard tackle winded the goalkeeper.
Word forms
| plural | winds |
|---|---|
| third person singular | winds |
| past tense | wound |
| past participle | wound |
| -ing form | winding |
Common combinations
- strong wind
- A strong wind closed the bridge.
- wind direction
- Check the wind direction before lighting the fire.
- wind speed
- The wind speed reached sixty miles an hour.
- wind up a clock
- Please wind up the clock before you leave.
- wind down a window
- He wound down the car window to speak.
- wind through the hills
- The river winds through the hills.
Synonyms and how they differ
- breeze
- Breeze is a gentle, pleasant wind, whereas wind covers all strengths.
- gust
- A gust is a sudden short burst of wind, not a steady flow.
- gale
- A gale is a very strong wind, usually at sea or in a storm.
- coil
- Coil is a verb for winding something into rings or a spiral.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: wind or wound? wind or whine?
wind vs wound
Wound is the past tense of the verb wind, pronounced to rhyme with found; the noun wound (an injury) is said as WOOND.
wind vs whine
Whine means a long high complaint or sound; the verb wind is pronounced like wined.
Practice
The narrow road will ___ through the valley for several miles before it reaches the town.
Choose one answer.
After will, the base form wind is needed, here meaning to follow a curving path. Wound and winded are past forms, and winds takes a singular subject in the present tense.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “wind”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.