Well

How to spell well

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce well

What does well mean?

1. adverbIn a good, skilful, or satisfactory manner.
2. adjectiveIn good health; not ill.
3. nounA deep shaft sunk into the ground to reach water or oil.
4. verbTo rise or flow up to the surface, as a liquid or emotion.

Well in a sentence

• adverb

  She performed well in her final interview.

• adjective

  After a week of rest she felt completely well again.

• noun

  The farmer dug a new well to supply the cattle.

• verb

  Tears began to well in her eyes during the speech.

• adverb

  The project went well despite the tight deadline.

• adjective

  He did not look well enough to return to work.

Where does well come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This small word actually braids together more than one Old English thread. The adverb and adjective come from Old English 'wel', meaning 'in a good or satisfactory manner', which traces back to the same ancient root that gave us 'will', carrying the underlying idea of something being as one wishes or desires. The noun meaning a deep shaft dug for water is a different word entirely: Old English 'wella' or 'wiella', a spring or fountain, related to the verb 'weallan', 'to bubble up or boil'. That same bubbling-up sense survives in the modern verb, as when tears well up in someone's eyes. The interjection 'well', used to open a sentence or pause for thought, grew out of the adverb during the medieval period. Because all these meanings collapsed into the single four-letter spelling, the word is trivially easy to write but unusually rich in function.

How the word is built

• well (from Old English wel: in a good manner); the water-source noun derives from a separate Old English root wella (a spring)