Word.ws English Dictionary

web

/wɛb/

web noun: the silken structure which a spider builds using silk secreted from the spinnerets at the caudal tip of its abdomen; a spiderweb. Also the alternative letter-case form of Web.

web: the silken structure which a spider builds using silk secreted from the spinnerets at the caudal...
Image: Luc Viatour, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

web (plural webs)

  1. The silken structure which a spider builds using silk secreted from the spinnerets at the caudal tip of its abdomen; a spiderweb.
    • The sunlight glistened in the dew on the web.
    Synonyms:
    cobweb, spiderweb
    1. Any of several similar materials, such as that created by tent caterpillars.
  2. (broadly) Any interconnected set of persons, places, or things, which, when diagrammed, resembles a spider's web.
    • The time of his birth, his birth-place, his parentage, are all involved in obscurity; and such has been the perplexing ingenuity of commentators, that it is difficult to extricate the truth from the web of conjectures with which it is interwoven.1828, Washington Irving, “Birth, Parentage, and Education of Columbus”, in A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: G. & C. Carvill, […], →OCLC, book...
    • [T]he blame must rest on the sombre spirit of our forefathers, who wove their web of life with hardly a single thread of rose-color or gold, and not on me, who have a tropic-love of sunshine, and would gladly gild all the world with it, if I knew where to find so much.1851 (indicated as 1852), Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Main-Street”, in The Snow-Image, and Other Twice-Told Tales, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC, page 96
    Synonyms:
    spiderweb
    1. (broadly, figuratively) A scheme.
      • web of lies
      • She got lost in a web of international intrigue.
    2. (Internet, broadly) The Internet; the World Wide Web.
    3. (US, broadly, dated) A major broadcasting network.
      • […] the first big move toward a contract for television performers was made Friday (20) when the webs agreed to pay them according to the length of the show. […] Altho the major TV webs — NBC and CBS — may fall in line soon, an agreement may possibly be held up by the opposition of DuMont […]1950, Billboard, volume 62, number 43, page 9
      • ABC-TV this week put into effect its long anticipated plans to move into daytime programming in a bigger way by opening up its 4-5 across-the-board strip. The web is using its "Mickey Mouse Club," which is stoutly anchored in the 5-6 p.m. slot, as a backing up point for its afternoon expansion.1955, Billboard, page 5
  3. A latticed or woven structure.
    • The gazebo’s roof was a web made of thin strips of wood.
    • The colonists were forbidden to manufacture any woollen, or linen, or cotton fabrics ; not a web might be woven, not a shuttle thrown, on penalty of exile.1866, George Bancroft, “New Netherland”, in History of the United States of America, from the Discovery of the American Continent, 21st edition, volume II, Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, page 281
    Synonyms:
    webbing
    1. The part of a baseball mitt between the forefinger and thumb, the webbing.
      • He caught the ball in the web.
    2. (dated) A band of webbing used to regulate the extension of the hood of a carriage.
  4. (usually, "weave", or similar verbs) A tall tale with more complexity than a myth or legend.
    • Careful—she knows how to spin a good web, but don't lean too hard on what she says.
    • a tangled web of deception
    Synonyms:
    yarn
  5. A plot or scheme.
  6. The interconnection between flanges in structural members, increasing the effective lever arm and so the load capacity of the member.
  7. The thinner vertical section of a railway rail between the top (head) and bottom (foot) of the rail.
  8. A fold of tissue connecting the toes of certain birds or of other animals.
  9. The abnormal webbing sometimes present between the fingers or toes in humans.
  10. A section of a groin vault, separated by ribs.
  11. A continuous strip of material carried by rollers during processing.
  12. A long sheet of paper which is fed from a roll into a printing press, as opposed to individual sheets of paper.
Show 7 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. The blade of a saw.
  2. The thin, sharp part of a colter.
  3. The bit of a key.
  4. (obsolete) A seventeenth-century unit of Rhenish glass containing 60 bunches.
    • […] And there with ſtately pompe by heapes they wend, / And Chriſtians ſlaine rolle vp in webs of lead […]1600, [Torquato Tasso], “The Tenth Booke of Godfrey of Bulloigne”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold]...
    Synonyms:
    way
    1. (obsolete) The blade of a sword.
      • Argant a ſword, whereof the web was ſteele, / Pommell, rich ſtone ; hilts, gold, approu’d by tuch, / With rareſt workmanſhip all forged weele, / The curious art exceld the ſubſtance much.1600, [Torquato Tasso], “The Second Booke of Godfrey of Bulloigne”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold]...
  5. The series of barbs implanted on each side of the shaft of a feather, whether stiff and united together by barbules, as in ordinary feathers, or soft and separate, as in downy feathers.
  6. (archaic) A cataract of the eye.
  7. (obsolete) Woven cloth or material.
    1. (obsolete) A piece of cloth or fabric, as off the loom or being removed from a loom.
      • She was presented with webs of the finest cloth, and with boxes of precious ointments.1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume II, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 165

Verb

web (third-person singular simple present webs, present participle webbing, simple past and past participle webbed)

  1. (intransitive) To construct or form a web.
  2. (transitive) To cover with a web or network.
    • The canker worm has no shelter upon the tree, but lies out upon the leaf or branch ; this forms itself a house by webbing the corner of a leaf, into which it retreats on the first appearance of danger[…]1853 June 21, R. C. Stone, “A New Insect”, in Simon Brown, editor, The New England Farmer, volume V, Boston: Raynolds & Nourse, page 362
    • In the meantime continents were being ribbed with railways, the atmosphere was being webbed with telegraph wires connecting every important commercial centre[…]1895, “Has Gold Risen?”, in The Forum, volume XVIII, New York: The Forum Publishing Co., page 577
  3. (transitive) To ensnare or entangle.
  4. (transitive) To provide with a web.
  5. (obsolete, transitive) To weave.
    • Item that the Wever whiche shall have the wevyng of eny wollen yerne to be webbed into cloth shall weve werk[…]1511–12, “An Act agaynst deceyptfull making of Wollen Cloth”, in The Statures of the Realm, volume III, London: Dawsons of Pall Mall, published 1963, page 28

Proper noun capitalized: Web

the Web

  1. The World Wide Web.
    • Some of that content is now only available on the Web.
    • Web page

Also used as

web is also the alternative letter-case form of Web.

web meaning in Hindi, Bengali, Arabic and Thai

web in Hindi

any interconnected set of persons, places, or things
जाल jāl
a latticed or woven structure
जाल jāl, जाली jālī
a fold of tissue connecting the toes of certain birds
जाली jālī
architecture
जाली jālī

web in Bengali

the World Wide Web (also spelled Web)
ওয়েব ōẇeb

web in Arabic

the World Wide Web (also spelled Web)
ويب

web in Thai

the World Wide Web (also spelled Web)
เว็บ wép
More languagesFewer languages
web in Vietnamese
mạng
web in Myanmar
ဝက်ဘ် wakbh

Examples of web in a sentence

  • The event handler should only fire after all web page content has finished loading.
  • The external web servers hit DBSRV7, but the internal web server hits DBSRV3.
  • The web server spawns a new process to handle each client's request.

All 40 example sentences with web

Synonyms of web

All synonyms of web

Forms of web

Noun
pluralwebs
Verb
third-person singular presentwebs
present participlewebbing
past participlewebbed
pastwebbed
Proper noun
alternative formweb

Past tense of web: webbed

Plural of web: webs

Origin of web

From Middle English web, webbe, from Old English webb, from Proto-West Germanic *wabi, from Proto-Germanic *wabją (“web”), from Proto-Germanic *webaną (“to weave”), from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to braid, weave”). Cognates Cognate with Scots wab (“web”), North Frisian wääb (“web”), Saterland Frisian Wäb (“web”), West Frisian and Dutch web (“web”), Danish væv (“web”), Faroese vevur (“web”), Icelandic vefur (“web”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk vev (“web”), Swedish väv (“web”); also Cornish goghi (“wasps”), Irish foich, foiche, puch (“wasp”), Welsh gwchi (“drone”), Latin vespa (“wasp”), Ancient Greek ὑφή (huphḗ, “web”), ὑφαίνω (huphaínō, “to weave”) (whence Greek ανυφαίνω (anyfaíno), υφαίνω (yfaíno, “to weave”)), Albanian vej (“to weave”), Latvian lapsene (“wasp”), Lithuanian vapsvà (“wasp”), Old Prussian wobse (“wasp”), Belarusian аса́ (asá, “wasp”), Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, and Ukrainian оса́ (osá, “wasp”), Czech vosa (“wasp”), Polish, Slovak, and Slovene osa (“wasp”), Serbo-Croatian о̀са, òsa (“wasp”), Armenian մոզ (moz, “a kind of fly that bites horses and cattle”), Northern Kurdish moz (“hornet; wasp”), Persian بافتن (bâftan, “to weave”), Tocharian A wäp-...

Ellipsis of World Wide Web.

Words formed from web

Phrases with web

98 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with web

5 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about web

What does web mean?
Web means the silken structure which a spider builds using silk secreted from the spinnerets at the caudal tip of its abdomen; a spiderweb.
What is web in Hindi?
Web in Hindi is जाल (jāl), जाली (jālī), अंतरजाल (antarjāl). See Web meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is web?
Web can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce web?
Web is pronounced /wɛb/.
What is the plural of web?
The plural of web is webs.

Words near web in the dictionary

  1. weazeny
  2. weazle
  3. weazles
  4. weazon
  5. weazons
  6. web
  7. Web 1.0
  8. Web 2.0
  9. Web 3.0
  10. web address
  11. web addresses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: web (page history and authors); Web (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-web.ogg.

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