Wand

How to spell wand

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce wand

What does wand mean?

1. nounA slender rod, especially one waved by a magician or conjuror, or used as a tool or pointer.

Wand in a sentence

• The magician waved his wand and a dove appeared.

• She cleaned the corners of the room with a slim vacuum wand.

Where does wand come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

The word comes from the Old Norse 'vondr', which meant a slender, supple stick or twig, the kind cut from a tree to be bent or waved about. It entered English in the early medieval period through contact with Norse settlers, and it is closely related to the verb 'wind', in the sense of something pliant enough to twist and bend. For centuries a wand was simply any thin rod, and only later did it gather its more glamorous associations, first as a staff or baton carried as a mark of office, and then as the magician's or fairy's instrument familiar from folklore. The straightforward spelling matches its blunt, single-syllable origin, which is why it rarely troubles writers despite looking a little plain. Its modern fame owes much to fiction, but the underlying word has meant 'a thin stick' for the best part of a thousand years.

How the word is built

• wand (a single Old Norse root meaning a slender rod or stick; no prefix or suffix)