winsome
Syllables: win·some/ˈwɪn.səm/
winsome adjective: charming, engaging, winning; inspiring approval and trust, especially if in an innocent manner.
Adjective
winsome (comparative winsomer, superlative winsomest)
- Charming, engaging, winning; inspiring approval and trust, especially if in an innocent manner.
- […] lifting her winsome eyes to my face with that sort of look which turns off bad temper, even when one has all the right in the world to indulge it.1847, Emily Brontë, chapter IX, in Wuthering Heights
- Will ye keep your troth to me, / Winsome Annie Ramsay? / Will ye keep your troth to me, / Winsome Annie Ramsay? / Will ye keep your troth to me? / My ain true luve will ye be? / Then meet me at the trysting tree, / Winsome Annie Ramsay.1851 October, Jonathan Freke Slingsby [pseudonym; John Francis Waller], “Slingsby in Scotland. Part II.—Conclusion.”, in The Dublin University Magazine, a Literary and Political Journal, volume...
winsome meaning in Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
winsome in Urdu
- بامسرت, دلبند, دلکش, دلشاد, جاذب, مسرور
winsome in Bengali
- আকর্ষণীয়, মনোমুগ্ধকর
winsome in Malayalam
- ചേതോഹര, ആകർഷിക്കുന്ന
Examples of winsome in a sentence
- Gerty MacDowell who was seated near her companions, lost in thought, gazing far away into the distance was in very truth as fair a specimen of winsome Irish girlhood as one could wish to see.1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 13, Nausicaa]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 333:
- The pink wallpaper of the nursery was decorated with a Noah's Ark of friendly lions and comical giraffes and winsome elephants.1961, David Alexander, “When the Rain Stops”, in Hangman’s Dozen, New York, N.Y.: Roy Publishers, →OCLC, page 216:
- “We have to begin to step up and communicate this message in ways that are winsome and compelling,” he added.2025 April 24, Elizabeth Dias, Ruth Graham, quoting Sean W. Rowe, “After Pope Francis, Progressive Christians Feel Vulnerable”, in The New...
Forms of winsome
| comparative | winsomer |
|---|---|
| superlative | winsomest |
Origin of winsome
Inherited from Middle English wynsom, winsom, winsome, winsum, wunsum (“beautiful; agreeable, gracious, pleasant; generous; of situations: favourable, propitious”), from Old English wynsum (“joyful, merry, pleasant; winsome”), from Proto-West Germanic *wunnjusam (“joyful”). By surface analysis, winne (“delight, joy, pleasure”) + -some.
Words formed from winsome
Questions about winsome
- What does winsome mean?
- Winsome means charming, engaging, winning; inspiring approval and trust, especially if in an innocent manner.
- What is winsome in Urdu?
- Winsome in Urdu is بامسرت, دلبند, دلکش. See Winsome meaning in Urdu.
- How do you use winsome in a sentence?
- Gerty MacDowell who was seated near her companions, lost in thought, gazing far away into the distance was in very truth as fair a specimen of winsome Irish girlhood as one could wish to see.
- What part of speech is winsome?
- Winsome is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce winsome?
- Winsome is pronounced /ˈwɪn.səm/.
Words near winsome in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: winsome (page history and authors); winsome (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); winsome (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); winsome (Malayalam Wiktionary) (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-au-winsome.ogg.
Cite this entry: “winsome.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/winsome. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.