wail

CEFRB2

/weɪl/

verb · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To cry out loudly in pain, sadness, or anger.

  2. 02

    noun

    A long, loud cry of pain or sadness.

Examples

  • Brenda let out a loud wail at the sight of her dead daughter.

  • Yanni heard a police car briefly wail its siren outside.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • [weɪɫ]

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings

  1. To make a noise like mourning or crying.

  2. To weep, lament persistently or bitterly.

  3. To cry out, as in sorrow or anguish.

More examples

In context

  • You can cry and wail all you like, no one is going to hear you.

  • She let out a loud, doleful wail.

  • The wind wailed and the rain streamed down.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The baby began to blank loudly when it woke up hungry in the middle of the night.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

c. 1300, Middle English weilen, waylen (“to sob, cry, wail”), from Old Norse væla (“to wail”), from væ, vei (“woe”), from Proto-Germanic *wai (whence also Old English wā (“woe”) (English woe)), from Proto-Indo-European *wáy. The verb is first attested in the intransitive sense; the transitive sense developed in mid-14ᵗʰ c.. The noun came from the verb.