wield
/wiːld/
wield verb: to handle with skill and ease, especially a weapon or tool.
Verb
wield (third-person singular simple present wields, present participle wielding, simple past and past participle wielded)
- To handle with skill and ease, especially a weapon or tool.
- To exercise (authority or influence) effectively.
- The question isn't whether AI will reshape human society—it's whether its engineers will wield that power thoughtfully.2025 August 27, Dana Suskind, “AI Engineers Need Their Own Hippocratic Oath. Here’s What It Should Say”, in TIME, archived from the original on 30 Aug 2025
- To command, rule over; to possess or own.
- There was never kyng sauff myselff that welded evir such knyghtes.
There was never a king other than myself who ever commanded such knights.Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur Book 5.Chapter 7
- There was never kyng sauff myselff that welded evir such knyghtes.
- To control, to guide or manage.
- With such his chearefull speaches he doth wield / Her mind so well, that to his will she bends[…].1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
- To carry out, to bring about.
- All is weill done, God wate, weild he hys will.a. 1513, Virgil, “VIII, prologue”, in Gawin Douglas [i.e., Gavin Douglas], transl., edited by [George Dundas], The Æneid of Virgil: Translated into Scottish Verse (Bannatyne Club, Publications; 64...
Noun
wield (countable and uncountable, plural wields)
- Rule, command; power, control, wielding.
- What boots it if I beat the heathen home,
And fold the mountains in my wield, and fire […]1872, George Francis Savage-Armstrong, The tragedy of Israel, volume 2, page 64 - […] telling him of the treasures concealed in the cave, of the mysterious ring and tarnhelmet, possessing which he can hold the wield of the world.1887, Richard Wagner, Siegfried
- What boots it if I beat the heathen home,
Proper noun capitalized: WIELD
WIELD
- Acronym of Western Institute for Endangered Language Documentation.
wield meaning in Arabic
wield in Arabic
- to exercise authority or influence
- مَارَسَ mārasa
Examples of wield in a sentence
- All wealth in my wield is, I know by my wit […]1968, John Allen, Masters of British Drama, page 32:
- “Trust me, I will make them listen,” he hissed and for the first time, he used his wield fallaciously, because instead of giving life, he absorbed it from the tree.2019, Lele Iturrioz, Summer:
Forms of wield
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | wields |
| present participle | wielding |
| past participle | wielded |
| past | wielded |
| Noun | |
| plural | wields |
| alternative form (obsolete) | welde |
| alternative form (obsolete) | weild |
| alternative form (obsolete) | weelde |
Origin of wield
From Middle English welden, from the merger of Old English wealdan (“to control, rule”) (strong class 7) and Old English wieldan (“to control, subdue”) (weak). Both verbs derive from Proto-West Germanic *waldan and *waldijan, respectively; and are ultimately from Proto-Germanic *waldaną (“to rule”). The reason for the merger was that in Middle English the -d in the stem made it hard to distinguish between strong and weak forms in the past tense.
From Middle English welde, from Old English *wield, ġewield (“power, control, dominion”), from Proto-West Germanic *waldi, from Proto-Germanic *waldiz (“power, might, control”).
Words formed from wield
Words that rhyme with wield
Questions about wield
- What does wield mean?
- Wield means to handle with skill and ease, especially a weapon or tool.
- What is wield in Arabic?
- Wield in Arabic is مَارَسَ (mārasa). See Wield meaning in Arabic.
- How do you use wield in a sentence?
- All wealth in my wield is, I know by my wit […]
- What part of speech is wield?
- Wield can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce wield?
- Wield is pronounced /wiːld/.
- What is the past tense of wield?
- The past tense of wield is wielded.
Words near wield in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: wield (page history and authors); WIELD (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-wield.ogg.
Cite this entry: “wield.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wield. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.