Woven

How to spell woven

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce woven

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does woven mean?

1. adjectiveFormed by interlacing threads or strands, or figuratively combined into a connected whole.

Woven in a sentence

• The basket was tightly woven from strips of willow.

• She admired the richly woven tapestry hanging in the hall.

Where does woven come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Woven is the past participle of the verb weave, which comes from the Old English wefan, meaning literally 'to interlace threads' on a loom. That verb belonged to a class of strong Germanic verbs whose past forms changed the vowel rather than simply adding an ending, which is why we say weave, wove, and woven rather than 'weaved'. The same ancient Germanic root gave the related words 'web' and 'weft', the threads that run crossways through a fabric, and even the spider's 'web' is named for this idea of interlacing. Over the centuries the meaning broadened from physical cloth-making to describe anything skilfully combined into a whole, such as a story with several threads woven together. The spelling trap lies in that 'o' from the strong-verb vowel change: it is wo-, not we-, and the single 'v' is followed by the old -en participle ending.

How the word is built

• wov- (from Old English wefan: to weave)
• -en (past-participle/adjective suffix)