Ward

How to spell ward

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce ward

What does ward mean?

1. nounA separate room or division in a hospital for a particular group of patients.
2. nounA child or young person placed under the legal protection of a guardian or a court.
3. nounAn administrative or electoral division of a town or city.
4. verbTo repel or keep away something unwanted, usually followed by 'off'.

Ward in a sentence

• noun

  The nurse moved him to the maternity ward after the birth.

• noun

  The boy became a ward of his aunt after the custody hearing.

• noun

  Each city ward elects its own councillor.

• verb

  She took vitamins to ward off a winter cold.

• noun

  Visiting hours on the children's ward end at eight.

• noun

  The court made her a ward until she turned eighteen.

Where does ward come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends from the Old English weard, which meant a watching, a guarding, or the person who keeps watch; it belonged to the same Germanic family that gave us 'guard' and 'warden'. The underlying root carried the plain sense of paying careful attention and keeping something safe, and you can still hear that idea in the verb 'to ward off', meaning to keep danger away. Over the centuries the noun branched out: a hospital ward and an electoral ward both began as enclosed areas placed under someone's keeping or oversight, while a 'ward' as a person meant someone placed under a guardian's protection. Interestingly, the same root travelled into French as 'garde' and then came back into English as 'guard', so ward and guard are essentially the same ancient word arriving by two different doors. The ridges inside a lock that match the cuts of a key are also called wards, again from the idea of guarding against the wrong key.

How the word is built

• ward (from Old English weard: a watching, guard, keeper)