wheel

/ˈwiːl/

wheel noun: a circular device capable of rotating on its axis, facilitating movement or transportation or performing labour in machines.

Image: Pearson Scott Foresman, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

wheel (plural wheels)

A circular device capable of rotating on its axis, facilitating movement or transportation or performing labour in machines.
- The departure was not unduly prolonged.[…]Within the door Mrs. Spoker hastily imparted to Mrs. Love a few final sentiments on the subject of Divine Intention in the disposition of buckets; farewells and last commiserations; a deep, guttural instigation to the horse; and the wheels of the waggonette...1921, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC
1. (informal, with-definite-article) A steering wheel and its implied control of a vehicle.
  - He fell asleep at the wheel.
2. The instrument attached to the rudder by which a vessel is steered.
  - I hear the noise about thy keel;
    ⁠I hear the bell struck in the night:
    ⁠I see the cabin-window bright;
    I see the sailor at the wheel.1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto X”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC
3. A spinning wheel.
4. A potter's wheel.
  - Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jeremiah 18:3
  - Turn, turn, my wheel! This earthen jar / A touch can make, a touch can mar.1878, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Kéramos
The breaking wheel, an old instrument of torture.

Synonyms:

breaking wheel
(slang) A person with a great deal of power or influence; a big wheel.
1. (dated, slang) A superuser on certain systems.
(slang) The lowest straight in poker: ace-2-3-4-5.
(slang) The best low hand in Lowball or High-low split poker: either ace-2-3-4-5 or 2-3-4-5-7, depending on the variant.
A wheelrim.
A round portion of cheese.
A Catherine wheel firework.
(obsolete) A rolling or revolving body; anything of a circular form; a disk; an orb.
- Flashing thick flames , wheel within wheel undrawn1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker...
A turn or revolution; rotation; compass.
- [He] throws his steep flight in many an aery wheel.1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
(figuratively) A recurring or cyclical course of events.
- the wheel of life
- According to the common vicissitude and wheel of things, the proud and the insolent, after long trampling upon others, come at length to be trampled upon themselves.1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London
(figuratively) The control of, or ability to steer, the course of events.
- This is the story of how AI changed our world in 2025, in new and exciting and sometimes frightening ways. It is the story of how Huang and other tech titans grabbed the wheel of history, developing technology and making decisions that are reshaping the information landscape, the climate, and our...2025 December 11, Charlie Campbell, Andrew R. Chow and Billy Perrigo, “The Architects of AI Are TIME’s 2025 Person of the Year”, in Time

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(archaic, slang) A dollar.
(UK, archaic, slang) A crown coin.

Synonyms:

cartwheel, tosheroon
(archaic, informal) A bicycle or tricycle.
- There was no vehicle of any sort, on land or water, in those days, that could go as fast as a bicycle, except a railroad train. […] Hammondsport and Glenn Curtiss had never even heard of the not yet quite born automobile. But Glenn Curtiss could push his "wheel," with those long legs of his...1927 March, Popular Science, page 22
A maneuver in marching in which the marchers turn in a curving fashion to right or left so that the order of marchers does not change.
A type of algebra where division is always defined, and in particular division by zero is meaningful.
- The real numbers can be extended to a wheel, as can any commutative ring.
The return to a peculiar rhythm at the end of each stanza.

Verb

wheel (third-person singular simple present wheels, present participle wheeling, simple past and past participle wheeled)

(transitive) To roll along on wheels.
- Wheel that trolley over here, would you?
- I had to wheel my bicycle up a steep hill.
(transitive) To transport something or someone using any wheeled mechanism, such as a wheelchair.
- The patient was wheeled out of the ER.
- She wheeled the dung in the wheelbarrow
  Along a stretch of road;
  But she always ran away and left
  Her not-nice load,1916, Robert Frost, “A Girl’s Garden”, in Mountain Interval, New York: Henry Holt & Co, page 61
(dated, intransitive) To ride a bicycle or tricycle.
(intransitive) To make a circular movement.
- My arms wheeled frantically in the air as I tried to signal for help.
(intransitive) To move smoothly and easily, as if on wheels.
- I wheeled through the gathering, making all my appointed stops.
(intransitive) To change direction quickly, turn, pivot, whirl, wheel around.
- Your daughter, if you have not given her leave,
  I say again, hath made a gross revolt;
  Tying her duty, beauty, wit and fortunes
  In an extravagant and wheeling stranger
  Of here and every where.c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
- The dog screamed, and, wheeling in terror, galloped headlong in a new direction.1898, Stephen Crane, The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky
(transitive) To cause to change direction quickly, turn.
- […] he did as Menelaus had said, and set off running as soon as he had given his armour to a comrade, Laodocus, who was wheeling his horses round, close beside him.1898, Samuel Butler, The Iliad of Homer, Rendered into English Prose, Book 17
- Then wheeling his black steed suddenly, he raced away before the dazed soldiers could get their wits together to send a shower of arrows after him.1931, Robert E. Howard, chapter 2, in Hawks of Outremer
(intransitive) To travel around in large circles, particularly in the air.
- The vulture wheeled above us.
- […] Each aloft
  Upon his narrowed eminence bore globes
  Of wheeling suns, or stars, or semblances
  Of either, showering circular abyss
  Of radiance.1829, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Timbuctoo, lines 63–67
(transitive) To put into a rotatory motion; to cause to turn or revolve; to make or perform in a circle.
- Now Heav’n in all her Glorie shon, and rowld
  Her motions, as the great first-Movers hand
  First wheeld thir course;1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
- Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight,
  And all the air a solemn stillness holds,
  Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,
  And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds:1751, Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, lines 5–8
(intransitive, grime music) To reload a track; to play a wheel-up.
- The crowd wanted to track to be played again, so they shouted out "Wheel it".
(transitive) To execute (a person) using the breaking wheel.

wheel meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

wheel in Hindi

a circular device facilitating movement or transportation: चक्र cakra, पहिया pahiyā

wheel in Tamil

a circular device facilitating movement or transportation: சில்லு cillu, சக்கிரம் cakkiram, சக்கரம் cakkaram

wheel in Marathi

a circular device facilitating movement or transportation: चाक cāk

wheel in Urdu

a circular device facilitating movement or transportation: پَہِیَّا pahiyyā, پَہِیَّہ pahiyya, چَکْر cakr

More languagesFewer languages

wheel in Bengali: চাকা caka
wheel in Telugu: చక్రం cakraṁ, చక్రము cakramu
wheel in Malayalam: ചക്രം cakraṁ
wheel in Kannada: ಚಕ್ರ cakra
wheel in Punjabi: ਚੱਕਾ cakkā
wheel in Gujarati: ચક્ર cakra
wheel in Odia: ଚକ caka
wheel in Sanskrit: चक्र cakra
wheel in Sinhala: රෝදය rōdaya
wheel in Assamese: চকা soka
wheel in Nepali: चक्का cakkā, पाङ्ग्रा pāṅgrā
wheel in Pashto: څرخ čarx, ارابه arābá
wheel in Tagalog: gulong
wheel in Arabic: عَجَلَة ʕajala, عجلة ʕagala, رويضة rwīḍa
wheel in Malay: roda, lereng
wheel in Indonesian: roda
wheel in Persian: چَرْخ čarx
wheel in Thai: ล้อรถ, ล้อ lɔ́ɔ, กง gong
wheel in Vietnamese: bánh xe, bánh lái
wheel in Myanmar: ဘီး bhi:
Sindhi: اَيٽُ aitu
Dhivehi: ފުރޮޅު furoḷu
Kashmiri: ژَکٕر ċakụr, ژَکھٕر ċakhụr

Examples of wheel in a sentence

But Glenn Curtiss could push his "wheel," with those long legs of his, uphill, downhill or on the level, faster than any other boy in Hammondsport.1927 March, Popular Science, page 22:
Why should we confine a body of men to making laws, when so many of them might be more usefully employed in wheeling barrows?1841, “Parliamentary Masons.—Parliamentary Pictures”, in Punch, volume I, page 162:
He […] cleared the table; piled everything on the dumb-waiter; gave us our wine-glasses; and, of his own accord, wheeled the dumb-waiter into the pantry.1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, chapter 28, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […]...
On reaching the slip, the barrow was wheeled off the truck onto a scaffolding gantry built out over the wall, and the concrete tipped down a corrugated iron chute on to a steel plate.1959 December, Richard Hope, “Narrow Gauge Landslip”, in Railway Magazine, page 866:

All 40 example sentences with wheel

Synonyms of wheel

Forms of wheel

Noun
plural	wheels
Verb
third-person singular present	wheels
present participle	wheeling
past participle	wheeled
past	wheeled

Past tense of wheel: wheeled

Plural of wheel: wheels

Origin of wheel

From Middle English whel, from Old English hwēol, from Proto-West Germanic *hwehwl, from Proto-Germanic *hwehwlą, *hweulō, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷekʷlóm, *kʷékʷlos, *kʷékʷléh₂, reduplication of *kʷel- (“to turn”) and a suffix (literally "(the thing that) turns and turns"). See also West Frisian tsjil, Dutch wiel, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish hjul; also Tocharian B kokale (“cart, wagon”), Ancient Greek κύκλος (kúklos, “cycle, wheel”), Avestan 𐬗𐬀𐬑𐬭𐬀 (caxra), Sanskrit चक्र (cakrá); and Latin colō (“to till, cultivate”), Tocharian A and Tocharian B käl- (“to bear; bring”), Ancient Greek πέλω (pélō, “to come into existence, become”), Old Church Slavonic коло (kolo, “wheel”), Albanian sjell (“to bring, carry, turn around”), Avestan 𐬗𐬀𐬭𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬌 (caraⁱti, “it circulates”), Sanskrit चरति (cárati, “it moves, wanders”). Doublet of chakra, chakram, charkha, chukker, cycle, cyclus, and kike.

Words formed from wheel

Phrases with wheel

163 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with wheel

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about wheel

What does wheel mean?: Wheel means a circular device capable of rotating on its axis, facilitating movement or transportation or performing labour in machines.
What is wheel in Hindi?: Wheel in Hindi is चक्र (cakra), पहिया (pahiyā). See Wheel meaning in Hindi.
How do you use wheel in a sentence?: But Glenn Curtiss could push his "wheel," with those long legs of his, uphill, downhill or on the level, faster than any other boy in Hammondsport.
What part of speech is wheel?: Wheel can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce wheel?: Wheel is pronounced /ˈwiːl/.
What is the plural of wheel?: The plural of wheel is wheels.

Words near wheel in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: wheel (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: 2026-09-02

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

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