wen

wen

1. (international standards) ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-5 language code for Sorbian languages.

• enPR: wĕn, IPA^(key): /wɛn/
• Rhymes: -ɛn
• Homophone: when (wine–whine merger)

From Middle English wen, wenne, from Old English wenn, wænn (“wen”), from Proto-Germanic *wanjaz. Cognate with Dutch wen (“goiter”), Low German Ween (“wen”), dialectal German Wenne (“wen”), Danish van, væne.

wen (plural wens)

1. A cyst on the skin; a tumor or wart.
   • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Country Described. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag), page [220]:

     There was a Fellow with a Wen in his Neck, larger than five Woolpacks, and another with a couple of wooden Legs, each about twenty foot high.

   • 1854, Henry David Thoreau, Walden, Walden:

     When I have met an immigrant tottering under a bundle which contained his all--looking like an enormous wen which had grown out of the nape of his neck--I have pitied him, not because that was his all, but because he had all that to carry.

   • 1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow:

     Creeps, foreigners with tinted, oily skin, wens, sties, cysts, wheezes, bad teeth, limps, staring or—worse—with Strange Faraway Smiles.

   • 1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest […], Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 4:

     I am debating whether to risk scratching the right side of my jaw, where there is a wen.

   • 1999, Robert Lacey, Danny Danziger, The Year 1000: What life was like at the turn of The First Millennium, London: Abacus, published 2000, page 125:

     Wen, Wen, little Wen,
     here you must not build, here have no abode
     but you must go north to the nearby hill
     where, poor wretch, you have a brother.

• Great Wen

Inherited from Old English wynn.

wen (plural wens)

1. Obsolete form of wynn (“the letter ƿ”).

Eye dialect spelling of when.

wen (not comparable)

1. (eye dialect) Alternative spelling of when.

wen

1. (eye dialect) Alternative spelling of when.

wen

1. (eye dialect) Alternative spelling of when.

wen (uncountable)

1. (eye dialect) Alternative spelling of when.

• New, new, new-

From Dutch winnen, from Middle Dutch winnen, from Old Dutch winnan, from Proto-Germanic *winnaną, from Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁- (“to strive, desire, wish, love”).

• IPA^(key): /vɛn/

• Audio:

  (file)

wen (present wen, present participle wennende, past participle gewen)

1. to win

From English when.

wen

1. when

wen

1. when

• Crosbie, Paul, ed. (2007), Kriol-Inglish Dikshineri: English-Kriol Dictionary. Belize City: Belize Kriol Project, p. 371.

• IPA^(key): /ʋɛn/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: wen
• Rhymes: -ɛn

From Proto-Germanic *hwannē. Cognate with English when, German wenn, Low German wenn.

wen

1. (archaic) when

   En ik dacht aan den geur harer bloesems, aan het huiveren harer takken, aan den zang harer vogelen; en ik vroeg mij: wen rieken wij die? (V. Someren, 1822)

   And I thought about the scent of her blossoms, at the shuddering of her branches, at the songs of her birds, and I asked myself: when do we smell these?

wen

1. (archaic) if, when

   Daar heb ik wen de vogels vlogen, heimelik in elk nest geschouwd! (L. De Mont, 1880)

   There have I, when the birds flew, looked privily in each nest!

wen

1. inflection of wennen:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
   3. imperative

From Old Norse hvern. Compare Norwegian Nynorsk kven.

• IPA^(key): [wéːn]

wen ^{[1] [2]}

1. nominative/accusative neuter singular of wer: what

   Uonde wen?

   What else?

   Wen ig wet?

   What do I know?

• IPA^(key): [veːn]

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eːn

wen

1. (interrogative) accusative of wer: whom (direct object).

   Wen hast du gefragt?

   Whom did you ask?

• “wen” in Duden online
• “wen”, in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache‎^[2] (in German)

wēn

1. romanization of 𐍅𐌴𐌽

wen

1. yes

wen (Abra, Ilocos Sur)

1. correct!
2. Indicating surprise at, or requesting confirmation of, some new information; to express skepticism; really

   Synonyms: (Abra) oh, (Cordillera) isu

   A: Awan isudan.
   B: Ay wen?

   A: They're no longer here.
   B: Oh really?

• This is usually preceded by ay.

Derived from English when.

• IPA^(key): /wen/

wen

1. when
   • 2012, Di Jamiekan Nyuu Testiment, Edinburgh: DJB, published 2012, →ISBN, Matyu 23:7:

     Dem lov wen piipl gi dem speshal oudi wen dem go a maakit, an wen dem kaal dem, 'Tiicha'.

     They love [when] people to greet them with respect [when] in the marketplaces, and they love to have people call them 'Teacher'.

• wen at majstro.com

wen

1. Rōmaji transcription of ゑん

• IPA^(key): /ˈwən/ [ˈwɨn]
• Rhymes: -ən
• Syllabification: wen

wën

1. clipping of owen

wen

1. nonstandard spelling of wēn
2. nonstandard spelling of wén
3. nonstandard spelling of wěn
4. nonstandard spelling of wèn

• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

wen

1. alternative form of wayn (“wagon”)

wen (uncountable)

1. alternative form of wynne (“happiness”)

wen

1. (Northern) alternative form of winnen (“to win”)

From English when.

wen

1. when
   • 2025 February 4, “Bianca Censori Grammys dress and oda looks from events wey make pipo open mouth”, in BBC News Pidgin:

     Some stars don really push di line between shocking and stylish even as pipo start to wonder wen di fashion dey finish and di unexpected tins dey start.

     Some stars have really pushed the line between shocking and stylish even as people start to wonder when the fashion ends and the unexpected things begin.

• wan (Föhr-Amrum)
• wane, wine, wune (Mooring)

From Old Frisian winna, from Proto-West Germanic *winnan, from Proto-Germanic *winnaną (“to gain, win”), from Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁- (“to love”).

• (Sylt) IPA^(key): [vɛn]

wen

1. (Sylt) to win

• wœ̄n — Northumbrian

From Proto-Germanic *wēniz, from Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁- (“love”). Cognate with Old Frisian wen, Old Saxon wan, Old High German wān (German Wahn (“delusion”)), Old Norse ván, Gothic 𐍅𐌴𐌽𐍃 (wēns).

• IPA^(key): /weːn/
• Rhymes: -eːn

wēn f

1. expectation
2. likelihood
3. (poetic) hope
4. probability
   • c. 992, Ælfric, "The Octaves and Circumcision of our Lord"

     Wēn is þæt eower sum nyte hwæt sy ymbsnidennys.

     It is probable that some of you know not what circumcision is.

   • 1000. West Saxon Gospels (John, xvii. 26). Ic him cyðde ðinne naman & gyt wylle cyþan.

Strong i-stem:

• Middle English: wene, wen
  • English: ween
  • Scots: wen, wene

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *vъ́nъ.

• IPA^(key): (10^th–15^th CE) /vɛn/
• IPA^(key): (15^th CE) /vɛn/

wen

1. (attested in Greater Poland) outdoors, outside
   • 1916 [second half of the 15th century], Stanisław Słoński, editor, Psałterz puławski‎^{scan transliteration, transcription}, numbers 30, 15, Greater Poland:

     Gysz mye wydzyely, wen (foras) vczekaly ode mnye

     [Jiż mie widzieli, wen (foras) uciekali ode mnie]

• B. Sieradzka-Baziur, Ewa Deptuchowa, Joanna Duska, Mariusz Frodyma, Beata Hejmo, Dorota Janeczko, Katarzyna Jasińska, Krystyna Kajtoch, Joanna Kozioł, Marian Kucała, Dorota Mika, Gabriela Niemiec, Urszula Poprawska, Elżbieta Supranowicz, Ludwika Szelachowska-Winiarzowa, Zofia Wanicowa, Piotr Szpor, Bartłomiej Borek, editors (2011–2015), “wen”, in Słownik pojęciowy języka staropolskiego [Conceptual Dictionary of Old Polish] (in Polish), Kraków: IJP PAN, →ISBN

wen

1. soft mutation of gwen (“white (feminine)”)