web
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web¹
- /wɛb/
Rhymes with -ɛb
Where it comes from
From Middle English web, webbe, from Old English webb, from Proto-West Germanic *wabi, from Proto-Germanic *wabją (“web”), from Proto-Germanic *webaną (“to weave”), from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to braid, weave”).
Cognates
Cognate with Scots wab (“web”), North Frisian wääb (“web”), Saterland Frisian Wäb (“web”), West Frisian and Dutch web (“web”), Danish væv (“web”), Faroese vevur (“web”), Icelandic vefur (“web”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk vev (“web”), Swedish väv (“web”); also Cornish goghi (“wasps”), Irish foich, foiche, puch (“wasp”), Welsh gwchi (“drone”), Latin vespa (“wasp”), Ancient Greek ὑφή (huphḗ, “web”), ὑφαίνω (huphaínō, “to weave”) (whence Greek ανυφαίνω (anyfaíno), υφαίνω (yfaíno, “to weave”)), Albanian vej (“to weave”), Latvian lapsene (“wasp”), Lithuanian vapsvà (“wasp”), Old Prussian wobse (“wasp”), Belarusian аса́ (asá, “wasp”), Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, and Ukrainian оса́ (osá, “wasp”), Czech vosa (“wasp”), Polish, Slovak, and Slovene osa (“wasp”), Serbo-Croatian о̀са, òsa (“wasp”), Armenian մոզ (moz, “a kind of fly that bites horses and cattle”), Northern Kurdish moz (“hornet; wasp”), Persian بافتن (bâftan, “to weave”), Tocharian A wäp- (“to weave”), Tocharian B wāp- (“to weave”), Sanskrit उभ्नाति (ubhnāti, “to hurt, kill; to cover; fill”).
noun webs
- The silken structure which a spider builds using silk secreted from the spinnerets at the caudal tip of its abdomen; a spiderweb. The sunlight glistened in the dew on the web.
- Any of several similar materials, such as that created by tent caterpillars.
-
Any interconnected set of persons, places, or things, which, when diagrammed, resembles a spider's web.
The time of his birth, his birth-place, his parentage, are all involved in obscurity; and such has been the perplexing ingenuity of commentators, that it is difficult to extricate the truth from the web of conjectures with which it is interwoven.
Similar: spiderweb
- A scheme. web of lies
-
The Internet; the World Wide Web.
Similar: spiderweb
-
A major broadcasting network.
[…] the first big move toward a contract for television performers was made Friday (20) when the webs agreed to pay them according to the length of the show. […] Altho the major TV webs — NBC and CBS — may fall in line soon, an agreement may possibly be held up by the opposition of DuMont […]
Similar: spiderweb
-
A latticed or woven structure.
The gazebo’s roof was a web made of thin strips of wood.
Similar: webbing
-
The part of a baseball mitt between the forefinger and thumb, the webbing.
He caught the ball in the web.
Similar: webbing
-
A band of webbing used to regulate the extension of the hood of a carriage.
Similar: webbing
-
A tall tale with more complexity than a myth or legend.
Careful—she knows how to spin a good web, but don't lean too hard on what she says.
Similar: yarn
- A plot or scheme.
- The interconnection between flanges in structural members, increasing the effective lever arm and so the load capacity of the member.
- The thinner vertical section of a railway rail between the top (head) and bottom (foot) of the rail.
- A fold of tissue connecting the toes of certain birds or of other animals.
- The abnormal webbing sometimes present between the fingers or toes in humans.
- A section of a groin vault, separated by ribs.
- A continuous strip of material carried by rollers during processing.
- A long sheet of paper which is fed from a roll into a printing press, as opposed to individual sheets of paper.
- The blade of a saw.
- The thin, sharp part of a colter.
- The bit of a key.
-
A seventeenth-century unit of Rhenish glass containing 60 bunches.
[…] And there with ſtately pompe by heapes they wend, / And Chriſtians ſlaine rolle vp in webs of lead […]
Similar: way
-
The blade of a sword.
Argant a ſword, whereof the web was ſteele, / Pommell, rich ſtone ; hilts, gold, approu’d by tuch, / With rareſt workmanſhip all forged weele, / The curious art exceld the ſubſtance much.
Similar: way
- The series of barbs implanted on each side of the shaft of a feather, whether stiff and united together by barbules, as in ordinary feathers, or soft and separate, as in downy feathers.
-
A cataract of the eye.
Similar: pin and web, web and pin
- Woven cloth or material.
- A piece of cloth or fabric, as off the loom or being removed from a loom. She was presented with webs of the finest cloth, and with boxes of precious ointments.
proper noun the web
- Alternative letter-case form of Web: the World Wide Web. Let me search the web for that.
verb webs · webbing · webbed
- To construct or form a web.
- To cover with a web or network. The canker worm has no shelter upon the tree, but lies out upon the leaf or branch ; this forms itself a house by webbing the corner of a leaf, into which it retreats on the first appearance of danger[…]
- To ensnare or entangle.
- To provide with a web.
- To weave. Item that the Wever whiche shall have the wevyng of eny wollen yerne to be webbed into cloth shall weve werk[…]
Web²
- /wɛb/
Sounds like web · Rhymes with -ɛb
Where it comes from
Ellipsis of World Wide Web.
proper noun the Web · web
- The World Wide Web. Some of that content is now only available on the Web.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: network, net, vane, entanglement, www, spider, trophic, retina, thicket, red, tissue, webb, toile, cloth, weft, twill
Translations
Every language
noun any interconnected set of persons, places, or things
| Español | red |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 망 mang |
| 日本語 | 網 ami |
| 中文 | 網 /网 wǎng |
| हिन्दी | जाल jāl |
| Português | rede fna |
| Français | réseau |
| Italiano | rete |
| Ελληνικά | ιστός istós, δίκτυο díktyo |
| Русский | сеть setʹ, се́тка sétka |
| Tiếng Việt | mạng |
noun a latticed or woven structure
| हिन्दी | जाल jāl, जाली jālī |
|---|---|
| Deutsch | Netz |
| Ελληνικά | ιστός istós, πλέγμα plégma, δίχτυ díchty |
| Русский | сеть setʹ, се́тка sétka |
noun a fold of tissue connecting the toes of certain birds
| Español | membrana |
|---|---|
| हिन्दी | जाली jālī |
| Português | palmura |
| Français | palmure |
| Ελληνικά | νηκτική μεμβράνη niktikí memvráni |
| Русский | перепо́нка perepónka |
noun the part of a baseball mitt between the forefinger and thumb, the webbing
| Français | panier, poche |
|---|
noun the thinner vertical section of a railway rail between the top and bottom of the rail
| Español | alma |
|---|---|
| Français | âme |
noun a long sheet of paper
| Français | bande |
|---|
name the World Wide Web (also spelled Web)
| 한국어 | 웹 wep |
|---|---|
| 日本語 | ウェブ webu |
| 中文 | 萬維網 /万维网 wànwéiwǎng |
| हिन्दी | अंतरजाल antarjāl |
| Português | net, rede, web |
| Français | Web, Toile |
| Deutsch | Web |
| Italiano | Web, Rete |
| Ελληνικά | Διαδίκτυο Diadíktyo, Ιστός Istós |
| Русский | сеть setʹ, веб vɛb, всеми́рная паути́на vsemírnaja pautína |
| Tiếng Việt | mạng |
| العربية | ويب |
Talk about this word "web." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/web. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. web. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/web "web." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/web.Cite this
@misc{web_2026,
title = {web},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/web},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
