Windy

How to spell windy

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce windy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does windy mean?

1. adjectiveMarked by strong or frequent moving air; blustery.

Windy in a sentence

• The forecast warned of a cold and windy afternoon along the coast.

• The rooftop terrace was too windy for the umbrellas to stay up.

Where does windy come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This adjective is built on the native English noun 'wind', meaning the natural movement of air, which descends from Old English 'wind' and shares roots across the Germanic languages, including German 'Wind' and Dutch 'wind'. The same family reaches back to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning 'to blow', which also gave Latin 'ventus' (the source of 'ventilate' and 'vent'). The simple suffix '-y', from Old English '-ig', was added to form an adjective meaning 'full of' or 'marked by', so 'windy' literally means 'full of wind'. The same spelling also serves a second, quite different word built on the verb 'to wind' (to twist or coil), pronounced with a long i, used to describe a road that twists and turns. Because both words are spelled identically, the spelling itself never changes; only the vowel sound and meaning shift.

How the word is built

• wind (moving air)
• -y (adjective suffix: full of, characterised by)