Weave

How to spell weave

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce weave

What does weave mean?

1. verbTo form cloth or other material by interlacing threads, strands, or fibres.
2. verbTo move along a twisting course, turning from side to side to avoid obstacles.
3. nounA particular pattern or method by which threads are interlaced in fabric.

Weave in a sentence

• verb

  The artisans still weave wool into blankets on wooden looms.

• verb

  The cyclist had to weave between the parked cars to reach the office.

• noun

  The jacket has a tight weave that keeps out the wind.

• verb

  She learned to weave baskets from dried reeds during the summer course.

• verb

  The runners weave through the crowded market without slowing down.

• noun

  A loose weave makes the linen feel cool against the skin.

Where does weave come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends from the Old English verb wefan, which meant to interlace threads to make cloth, and it belongs to a large Germanic family that includes the Dutch weven and the German weben. The deeper root is the Proto-Germanic webjan, tracing back to an ancient Indo-European root meaning to plait or to weave, the same source that gives us 'web' and 'weft'. For most of its history the word stayed close to the loom, describing the craft of turning yarn into fabric. The sense of moving in a winding, dodging path, as a driver weaves through traffic, grew out of the image of a shuttle darting back and forth across the threads, and it became common only in more recent centuries. The silent final 'e' simply signals the long vowel and has no sound of its own, which is the only real spelling trap, alongside its identical sound to the contraction 'we've'.

How the word is built

• weav- (from Old English wefan: to interlace threads)
• -e (silent letter marking the long vowel)

Words that sound like weave

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• we've: A contraction of 'we have', used to state what a group including the speaker possesses or has done.