wells
/wɛlz/
wells is the plural of well.
wells is the third-person singular simple present indicative of well.
Meaning of well
Noun
well (plural wells)
- A hole sunk into the ground as a source of water, oil, natural gas or other fluids.
- The woman said unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John iv:11
- A place where a liquid such as water surfaces naturally; a spring.
- Begin, then, sisters of the sacred well.1646 (indicated as 1645), John Milton, Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], →OCLC
- A small depression, e.g. suitable for holding liquid or other objects.
- Make a well in the dough mixture and pour in the milk.
- A source of supply.
- Dan Chaucer, well of English undefyled1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 32
- A vertical, cylindrical trunk in a ship, reaching down to the lowest part of the hull, through which the bilge pumps operate.
- The cockpit of a sailboat.
Proper noun capitalized: Wells
Wells
- An English topographic surname from Middle English for someone living near a well or a spring.
- A male given name transferred from the surname.
- A small cathedral city and civil parish with a city council in Somerset, England, previously in Mendip district (OS grid ref ST5445).
- A small town in Norfolk, England; in full, Wells-next-the-Sea.
- A town in the Cariboo Regional District, British Columbia, Canada.
- An unincorporated community in Pipe Creek Township, Miami County, Indiana; named for founder James Oscar Wells.
- A census-designated place in Ottawa County, Kansas.
- A town in York County, Maine; named for the city in England.
- A city in Faribault County, Minnesota; named for J. W. Wells, father-in-law of Canadian-American Minnesota politician Clark W. Thompson.
- An unincorporated community in Lowndes County, Mississippi.
- A city in Elko County, Nevada.
- A town and census-designated place therein, in Hamilton County, New York; named for land agent Joshua Wells.
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- A town in Cherokee County, Texas; named for railroad engineer Maj. E. H. Wells.
- A town and census-designated place therein, in Rutland County, Vermont.
- An unincorporated community in Marshall County, West Virginia.
- An unincorporated community in Rockland, Manitowoc County and Rantoul, Calumet County, Wisconsin.
- A town in Monroe County, Wisconsin; named for early settler James Wells.
- A number of townships, including in Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Pennsylvania, listed under Wells Township.
Forms of wells
| alternative form | Wels |
|---|
Origin of wells
From Old English wella, genitive plural of well (“spring”), in reference to a residence near a group of springs. The original use of the genitive case here would've indicated origin. The -s ending of the modern form would be added later on upon reanalysis after the breakdown of the case system (outside of pronouns) that occurred in the development of English.
Words formed from wells
Phrases with wells
- wells up
- dry wells
- hot wells
- ice wells
- ink wells
- oil wells
- wet wells
- dumb wells
- live wells
- Shap Wells
- snow wells
- tree wells
29 more phrasesFewer phrases
- tube wells
- wheel wells
- Builth Wells
- dipper wells
- Indian Wells
- Valley Wells
- Buckley Wells
- gravity wells
- Malvern Wells
- Mineral Wells
- quantum wells
- Tenbury Wells
- wildcat wells
- wishing wells
- artesian wells
- Cheyenne Wells
- fare thee wells
- Llanwrtyd Wells
- potential wells
- Tunbridge Wells
- Abyssinian wells
- spare tire wells
- spare tyre wells
- Llandrindod Wells
- Llangammarch Wells
- gravitational wells
- Royal Tunbridge Wells
- Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells
- Disgusteds of Tunbridge Wells
Words that rhyme with wells
3 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about wells
- What does wells mean?
- Wells means an English topographic surname from Middle English for someone living near a well or a spring.
- What is wells the plural of?
- Wells is the plural of well.
- What part of speech is wells?
- Wells is a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce wells?
- Wells is pronounced /wɛlz/.
Words near wells in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: wells (page history and authors); Wells (page history and authors); well (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-wells.ogg.
Cite this entry: “wells.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wells. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.