Wallet
nounA small flat folding case carried in the pocket or bag for holding money, cards, and identification.
How to spell wallet
6 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce wallet
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does wallet mean?
- nounA small flat folding case carried in the pocket or bag for holding money, cards, and identification.
Wallet in a sentence
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He kept his train ticket tucked inside his wallet.
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She pulled a credit card from her leather wallet at the till.
Where does wallet come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
The word wallet appeared in Middle English around the late 1300s, when it meant a bag or knapsack carried by a pilgrim or traveller for holding food and provisions on a journey. Its exact roots are debated, but it is generally traced to a Germanic source, possibly related to an Old North French form walet and ultimately to a root meaning to roll or to travel with a bundle, the same family that gives us ideas of rolled-up packs. Over the centuries the sense narrowed from a large travelling sack down to a small flat case carried in the pocket. By the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it had settled into the modern meaning of a folding holder for paper money and cards. The single l followed by a doubled t in -et is the small spelling point worth fixing in memory, since the word is easy to write but the diminutive ending can be slipped.
How the word is built
- wall- (likely from a Germanic root meaning 'roll' or 'travel pack')
- -et (diminutive noun suffix)
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