Western

How to spell western

7 letters · 2 syllables

4 of the 25 people asked to spell western in Spelling Garden got it wrong the first time.

How to pronounce western

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does western mean?

1. adjectiveSituated in, directed toward, or belonging to the west.
2. nounA film or story set in the American frontier, typically featuring cowboys and pioneers.

Western in a sentence

• adjective

  The western edge of the city has the best sunset views.

• noun

  He spent the rainy afternoon watching a classic western on television.

• adjective

  Strong winds blew in from the western coast all weekend.

• noun

  The director was famous for filming a western with sweeping desert scenery.

Where does western come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word comes straight from Old English westerne, meaning 'of or toward the west', built on west, the direction in which the sun sets. The same -erne ending shaped northerne, suerne (southern) and easterne, giving English its set of four directional adjectives, and that old suffix is exactly why the modern spelling keeps the -ern rather than a simpler -en. The root west itself is shared across the Germanic languages, appearing in Dutch west and German Westen, and it is thought to trace back to an ancient root linked to 'evening' or 'downward', the time and place of the setting sun. For most of its life the word simply marked geography, but from the early twentieth century it gained a fresh life in American English as a noun naming films and stories set on the frontier of the American West. Because the spelling is so regular and the pronunciation so plain, the word holds few traps and has stayed remarkably stable.

How the word is built

• west (the direction of sunset)
• -ern (Old English directional suffix, as in northern, eastern)