Word.ws English Dictionary

wapentake

/ˈwɒp.ən.teɪk/

wapentake noun: an administrative subdivision in northern English counties, developed under Norse influence, and corresponding to hundreds in the rest of England.

Noun

wapentake (plural wapentakes)

  1. An administrative subdivision in northern English counties, developed under Norse influence, and corresponding to hundreds in the rest of England.
    • Hollanders, Zelanders, Scots, French, Weſterne men, Northren men, beſides all the hundreds and wapentakes nine miles compaſſe, fetch the beſt of their viands and mangery from her market.1599, [Thomas] Nashe, Nashes Lenten Stuffe, […], London: […] [Thomas Judson and Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and C[uthbert] B[urby] […], →OCLC, page 6

Forms of wapentake

pluralwapentakes

Origin of wapentake

From Middle English wapentake, wepentake, wapentache, wapentac, from Old English wǣpenġetæc, from Old Norse vápnatak, from vápn (“weapon”) + taka (“take”), equivalent to weapon + take.

Words formed from wapentake

Questions about wapentake

What does wapentake mean?
Wapentake means an administrative subdivision in northern English counties, developed under Norse influence, and corresponding to hundreds in the rest of England.
What part of speech is wapentake?
Wapentake is a noun.
How do you pronounce wapentake?
Wapentake is pronounced /ˈwɒp.ən.teɪk/.
What is the plural of wapentake?
The plural of wapentake is wapentakes.

Words near wapentake in the dictionary

  1. wapenshaw
  2. wapenshawing
  3. wapenshawings
  4. wapenshaws
  5. wapentakal
  6. wapentake
  7. wapentakes
  8. Wapichan
  9. wapinschaw
  10. wapinschawing
  11. wapinschawings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wapentake (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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