wool

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wool^¹

/wʊl/ UK
/wʊl/ US
[wʊ̠ɫ] US
[wəl] US
[wul] US
/wʉl/ Northern Ireland, Scotland

Rhymes with -ʊl

Where it comes from

From Middle English wolle, from Old English wull, from Proto-West Germanic *wullu, from Proto-Germanic *wullō, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂.

Cognates

Cognate with Saterland Frisian Wulle, German Low German Wull, Dutch wol, German Wolle, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish ull, Danish uld; also Welsh gwlân, Latin lāna, Lithuanian vi̇̀lna, Russian во́лос (vólos), Slovak vlna, Bulgarian влас (vlas), Albanian lesh (“wool, hair, fleece”). Doublet of lana.

The vowel development u → o → oo is purely graphical. Modern English generally avoids the string ⟨wu⟩ in favour of ⟨wo⟩, and the resulting woll was then altered to wool (as supposedly better representing the pronunciation).

noun wools

uncountable, usually The hair of the sheep, llama and some other ruminants. The sheep were caught and plucked, because shears had not yet been invented to cut the wool from the sheep's back.
uncountable, usually A cloth or yarn made from such hair. Spielvogel said wet cleaning also has limitations; while it is fine for cottons and fabrics worn in warm climates, he said, it can damage heavy wools or structured clothes like suit jackets.
uncountable, usually Anything with a fibrous texture like that of sheep's wool. The groundsels have leaves covered in wool for insulation[…
broadly, uncountable, usually A dingy white color inspired by the natural shade of wool.
uncountable, usually A fine fiber obtained from the leaves of certain trees, such as firs and pines.
obsolete, uncountable, usually Short, thick hair, especially when crisped or curled. wool of bat and tongue of dog
New Zealand, UK, uncountable, usually Yarn, including that made from synthetic fibers.
derogatory, uncountable, usually A woolly back; a resident of a satellite town outside Liverpool, such as St Helens or Warrington. See also Yonner.
slang, uncountable, usually A marijuana cigarette or cigar laced with crack cocaine. The object of your affection is the treetop connection / Where basically you love to smoke your wools
Similar: wooler, woolie

Wool^²

/wʊl/ UK, US

Sounds like wool · Rhymes with -ʊl

proper noun

A village and civil parish in Dorset, England, previously in Purbeck district (OS grid ref SY8486).

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: fleece, woolen, woollen, cotton, comber, carder, carding, hair, yarn, shirt, string, smoke, smoking, chip, branch, coke

Translations

Every language

noun cloth or yarn

Español	lana
한국어	털실 teolsil, 양모 yangmo
日本語	羊毛 yōmō
中文	羊毛 yángmáo, 毛線 /毛线 máoxiàn
हिन्दी	ऊन ūn
Português	lã
Français	laine
Deutsch	Wolle
Italiano	lana
Ελληνικά	μαλλί mallí
Română	lână
Русский	шерсть šerstʹ, пря́жа prjáža
Tiếng Việt	len
العربية	صُوف ṣūf

noun hair of sheep, etc.

Español	lana
한국어	털실 teolsil, 양모 yangmo
日本語	ウール ūru, 羊毛 yōmō
中文	羊毛 yángmáo
हिन्दी	ऊन ūn
Kiswahili	sufu
Português	lã
Français	laine
Deutsch	Wolle
Italiano	lana
Ελληνικά	μαλλί mallí
Română	lână
Русский	шерсть šerstʹ
Tiếng Việt	len, lông
العربية	صُوف ṣūf
עברית	צֶמֶר tsémer

noun anything with a texture like that of wool

हिन्दी	ऊनी ūnī

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MLA

"wool." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/wool. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

wool. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/wool

Chicago

"wool." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/wool.

BibTeX

@misc{wool_2026,
  title = {wool},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/wool},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}