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Humans have been making objects out of wood since before there even was an English language, but the adjectival use of "wood" didn't come into being until the 14th century, and "wooden" didn't appear until the 16th. (The word wood has ancient roots, but it originally existed only as a noun.) In Middle English, the adjective of choice was "tree" or "treen," as in a "tree vessel" or "treen shoes." "Treen" in turn came from the Old English word trēowen, from the noun "trēow" ("tree") and the suffix -en, which was used to indicate that something was composed of a certain material. As far as we know, no one ever used "treen" figuratively to describe things that are stiff as a board, but "wooden" was put to broader use soon after it was first recorded.
Examples of wooden in a Sentence
Lisa Cericola, Southern Living, 7 Sep. 2025
Online, a wooden statue of Acutis sells for more than $14,000.
—Ruth Sherlock, NPR, 7 Sep. 2025
Museumgoers are greeted by several recreations of wooden boats used by Native Americans.
—Chris Quintana, USA Today, 6 Sep. 2025
Aguilar spends most of her weekends manning her wooden, minimalist photo booths – a rustic aesthetic the blends in with Southern California’s hilly vistas – for brides, grooms and all their guests.
—Ramishah Maruf, CNN Money, 6 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for wooden
Cite this Entry
“Wooden.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wooden. Accessed 10 Sep. 2025.
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