wain
/ˈwiː(ə)n/UK/weɪn/
wain noun: a wagon; a four-wheeled cart for hauling loads, usually pulled by horses or oxen. Also the misspelling of wane.
Noun
wain (plural wains)
- A wagon; a four-wheeled cart for hauling loads, usually pulled by horses or oxen.
- "The Hay Wain" is a famous painting by John Constable.
- Many roads and tracks crossed the green fields, and there was much coming and going: wains moving in lines towards the Great Gate, and others passing out.1955 October 20, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, “Minas Tirith”, in The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of The Lord of the Rings […], New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, published December...
- A chariot or similar stately carriage.
- And the hill-king spake to his footpages twain.
Time with me goes slow. —
"Put ye the gray pacers now unto the wain,"
But that grief is heavy I know.1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 175
- And the hill-king spake to his footpages twain.
Verb
wain (third-person singular simple present wains, present participle waining, simple past and past participle wained)
- To carry.
Proper noun (1) capitalized: Wain
Wain (countable and uncountable, plural Wains)
- A surname.
- A village in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
Proper noun (2) capitalized: Wain
the Wain
- Ellipsis of Charles' Wain.
- Bee! thou little mundane bird!
Fly away to where I bid thee;
O'er the moon, beneath the sun,
Behind the lofty heaven's stars,
Close by the Wain's axle - fly
To the great Creator's court.1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume II, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 315
- Bee! thou little mundane bird!
Also used as
wain is also the misspelling of wane.
wain is also the alternative form of wean.
Forms of wain
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | wains |
| alternative form (obsolete) | wayn |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | wains |
| present participle | waining |
| past participle | wained |
| past | wained |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Wains |
Origin of wain
From Middle English wayn, from Old English wæġn, from Proto-West Germanic *wagn, from Proto-Germanic *wagnaz, from Proto-Indo-European *woǵʰnos, from *weǵʰ- (“to bring, transport”). Doublet of wagon, borrowed from Middle Dutch. Cognates Cognate with West Frisian wein, Dutch wagen, German Wagen, Danish vogn, Norwegian vogn, Swedish vagn.
From wee one.
Words formed from wain
Phrases with wain
Words that rhyme with wain
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- drain
- pane
- gain
- main
- sustain
- vein
- entertain
- skein
- Wayne
- abstain
- bane
- campaign
- champagne
- crane
- entrain
- fain
- insane
- maine
- pain
- plane
- stain
- wane
- Aquitaine
- ascertain
- chicane
- contain
- detain
- explain
- maintain
- mundane
- obtain
- refrain
- remain
- vane
- amain
- arcane
- Blaine
- complain
- deign
- detrain
- distrain
- kane
- ordain
- pertain
- profane
- public domain
- reign
- swain
Questions about wain
- What does wain mean?
- Wain means a wagon; a four-wheeled cart for hauling loads, usually pulled by horses or oxen.
- What part of speech is wain?
- Wain can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce wain?
- Wain is pronounced /weɪn/ (UK).
- What is the plural of wain?
- The plural of wain is wains.
Words near wain in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: wain (page history and authors); Wain (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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “wain.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wain. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.