Word.ws English Dictionary

onstead

onstead noun: a single farmhouse; a steading.

Noun

onstead (plural onsteads)

  1. (Scotland, UK, archaic, dialectal) A single farmhouse; a steading.
    • The farm onsteads on many properties are old, and afford too little accommodation1737, Mr David Wilson, “on the Present State of the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire”, in Prize-essays and Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland
    • The onstead, which is nearly the same as when inhabited by the poet, lies about seven miles from the town, on the right hand side of the road, surrounded by a few trees.1828, Robert Chambers, The Picture of Scotland, volume 1, page 232

Forms of onstead

pluralonsteads

Origin of onstead

With loss of original w-, due to Scandinavian una (“to reside, dwell”), from *wonstead, from won (“to reside, dwell”) + stead. More at wone, stead. Alternatively, possibly a corruption of homestead.

Questions about onstead

What does onstead mean?
Onstead means a single farmhouse; a steading.
What part of speech is onstead?
Onstead is a noun.
What is the plural of onstead?
The plural of onstead is onsteads.

Words near onstead in the dictionary

  1. Onstad
  2. Onstads
  3. onstaffing
  4. onstaffings
  5. onstage
  6. onstead
  7. onsteads
  8. onstream
  9. Onsu
  10. onsweep
  11. onsweeping

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: onstead (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “onstead.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/onstead. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.