Well Meaning
/ˈwɛl/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
advAccurately, competently, satisfactorily.
advCompletely, fully.
Sentence Examples
My mom doesn't speak English very well.
I don't speak French well enough!
They played well in the tournament.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Antonyms:
CEFR Practice Quiz
The athlete performed ____ in the race, finishing first with a new record.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He is feeling very ____ today, so he decided to go for a long walk in the park this afternoon today.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English wel, wal, wol, wele, from Old English wel (“well, abundantly, very, very easily, very much, fully, quite, nearly”), from Proto-Germanic *wela, *wala (“well”, literally “as wished, as desired”), from Proto-Indo-European *welh₁- (“wish, desire”). Cognates Cognate with Yola vella, waal, wel, well, wull (“well”), Cimbrian boll, bóol (“well”), Dutch wel (“well”), German wohl, wol, woll (“well”), Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk vel (“well”), Faroese væl (“well”), Swedish väl, waͤl (“well”), Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌹𐌻𐌰 (waila, “well”). Related to will.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"In the lightness of my heart I sang catches of songs as my horse gayly bore me along the well-remembered road."
— 1852, Mrs M.A. Thompson, “The Tutor's Daughter”, in Graham's American Monthly Magazine of Literature, Art, and Fashion, page 266:
"A chap named Eleazir Kendrick and I had chummed in together the summer afore and built a fish-weir and shanty at Setuckit Point, down Orham way. For a spell we done pretty well. Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand."
— 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
"Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field."
— 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
"Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers,[…]. Even such a boat as the Mount Vernon offered a total deck space so cramped as to leave secrecy or privacy well out of the question, even had the motley and democratic assemblage of passengers been disposed to accord either."
— 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
"His overall color was similar to that of a well-boiled lobster."
— 1957 July, Randall Garrett, “The Best Policy”, in Astounding Science Fiction:
Explore More A1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The athlete performed ____ in the race, finishing first with a new record.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He is feeling very ____ today, so he decided to go for a long walk in the park this afternoon today.