Word \Word\, n. [AS. word; akin to OFries. & OS. word, D. woord, G. wort, Icel. or[eth], Sw. & Dan. ord, Goth. wa['u]rd, OPruss. wirds, Lith. vardas a name, L. verbum a word; or perhaps to Gr. "rh`twr an orator. Cf. {Verb}.] 1. The spoken sign of a conception or an idea; an articulate or vocal sound, or a combination of articulate and vocal sounds, uttered by the human voice, and by custom expressing an idea or ideas; a single component part of human speech or language; a constituent part of a sentence; a term; a vocable. ``A glutton of words.'' --Piers Plowman.
You cram these words into mine ears, against The stomach of my sense. --Shak.
Amongst men who confound their ideas with words, there must be endless disputes. --Locke.
2. Hence, the written or printed character, or combination of characters, expressing such a term; as, the words on a page.
3. pl. Talk; discourse; speech; language.
Why should calamity be full of words? --Shak.
Be thy words severe; Sharp as he merits, but the sword forbear. --Dryden.
4. Account; tidings; message; communication; information; -- used only in the singular.
I pray you . . . bring me word thither How the world goes. --Shak.
5. Signal; order; command; direction.
Give the word through. --Shak.
6. Language considered as implying the faith or authority of the person who utters it; statement; affirmation; declaration; promise.
Obey thy parents; keep thy word justly. --Shak.
I know you brave, and take you at your word. --Dryden.
I desire not the reader should take my word. --Dryden.
7. pl. Verbal contention; dispute.
Some words there grew 'twixt Somerset and me. --Shak.
8. A brief remark or observation; an expression; a phrase, clause, or short sentence.
All the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. --Gal. v. 14.
She said; but at the happy word ``he lives,'' My father stooped, re-fathered, o'er my wound. --Tennyson.
There is only one other point on which I offer a word of remark. --Dickens.
{By word of mouth}, orally; by actual speaking. --Boyle.
{Compound word}. See under {Compound}, a.
{Good word}, commendation; favorable account. ``And gave the harmless fellow a good word.'' --Pope.
{In a word}, briefly; to sum up.
{In word}, in declaration; in profession. ``Let us not love in word, . . . but in deed and in truth.'' --1 John iii. 8.
{Nuns of the Word Incarnate} (R. C. Ch.), an order of nuns founded in France in 1625, and approved in 1638. The order, which also exists in the United States, was instituted for the purpose of doing honor to the ``Mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God.''
{The word}, or {The Word}. (Theol.) (a) The gospel message; esp., the Scriptures, as a revelation of God. ``Bold to speak the word without fear.'' --Phil. i. 14. (b) The second person in the Trinity before his manifestation in time by the incarnation; among those who reject a Trinity of persons, some one or all of the divine attributes personified. --John i. 1.
{To eat one's words}, to retract what has been said.
{To have the words for}, to speak for; to act as spokesman. [Obs.] ``Our host hadde the wordes for us all.'' --Chaucer.
{Word blindness} (Physiol.), inability to understand printed or written words or symbols, although the person affected may be able to see quite well, speak fluently, and write correctly. --Landois & Stirling.
{Word deafness} (Physiol.), inability to understand spoken words, though the person affected may hear them and other sounds, and hence is not deaf.
{Word dumbness} (Physiol.), inability to express ideas in verbal language, though the power of speech is unimpaired.
{Word for word}, in the exact words; verbatim; literally; exactly; as, to repeat anything word for word.
{Word painting}, the act of describing an object fully and vividly by words only, so as to present it clearly to the mind, as if in a picture.
{Word picture}, an accurate and vivid description, which presents an object clearly to the mind, as if in a picture.
{Word square}, a series of words so arranged that they can be read vertically and horizontally with like results.
Note: H E A R T E M B E R A B U S E R E S I N T R E N T (A word square)
Syn: See {Term}.
Word \Word\, v. i. To use words, as in discussion; to argue; to dispute. [R.]
Word \Word\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Worded}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Wording}.] 1. To express in words; to phrase.
The apology for the king is the same, but worded with greater deference to that great prince. --Addison.
2. To ply with words; also, to cause to be by the use of a word or words. [Obs.] --Howell.
3. To flatter with words; to cajole. [Obs.] --Shak.
{To word it}, to bandy words; to dispute. [Obs.] ``To word it with a shrew.'' --L'Estrange.
In New York's garment district, work sometimes comes to a halt as word of yet another AIDS death spreads across Seventh Avenue.
A senior Bush administration aide said the U.S. sent word of Mr. Bush's proposals to all the nuclear-armed former Soviet republics.
A word processer sits on a table i her living room.
Later, Rose will force Ginny to remember just how abusive "Daddy" was; as time goes on, that word comes to have chilling, Sylvia Plath-like overtones.
His early travels and appointments were set without advance word to Democrats from the state involved.
But there's no uniform look and individuality remains the key fashion word in the British collections, being shown through Tuesday.
The word 'choreography' is used in the programme to describe their little numbers.
Would my word free the slaves when I cannot even enforce the Constitution in the rebel States?" The turning point in the Civil War came that summer, outside Gettysburg, Pa. For three days one of the war's bloodiest battles was fought.
Eisner asked. "In a word, panic." In an interview published in Friday's Contra Costa Times, Eisner, 48, said he rarely rests easy.
"The Algerian negotiators thereupon allowed the plane to take off for Algiers and then took the hijackers at their word.
One stock in trade is gumbo, a nourishing soup which derives from an African word for okra, the vegetable which forms the main ingredient.
In behavior laboratories, researchers have measured people's blood pressures while asking them to solve word puzzles.
The word is "moderate."
Since impeachment is the ultimate political punishment, the word would seem to be one that would get any president's attention. Nixon resigned rather than face an impeachment trial in the Senate.
UAL gained 4] to 155 on word that Gerald Greenwald was leaving his job as vice chairman of Chrysler Corp. to lead a proposed buyout of UAL's United Airlines.
The main leftist opposition, the PSUM, has abandoned the word "communist" but retains the hammer and sickle in its emblem.
"When the audit rate was 4% or 5% the word filtered around that the chances of getting audited weren't that great.
But it will take some good news to prompt that. There has been a revival of hopes of lower base rates, partly as the word from Mount Fuji is that interest rates around the world need to fall further.
And even with through traffic, Deputy 92-0 may lose her effectiveness as word spreads.
Each entry is accompanied by a notation on the first time the word or phrase was known to have been used.
Another U.S. banker who also sits on an advisory committee questioned the present committee system: "The Russian slang word for committee roughly translates into a dog with four hind legs," he said.
It is breathtaking that the very cabinet minister with responsibility for company laws should put in a word for a man charged with comprehensively breaking them.
Now he has to sort it out with skeptics, with Democrats who see him as the wrong representative to choose after a presidential election in which the L word _ liberal _ was used by Republicans as a political curse.
But it is also demeaning to Walter Mondale, Jimmy Carter, George McGovern and Lyndon Johnson, as well as confusing to the voters who two weeks ago saw Mr. Dukakis treat the word as an insult.
Don Rickles has the last word.
Wielding felt-tip pens, several Post employees scrawled the word "Thanks" in big letters across several byline-less pages of the paper and taped them up near the entrance to the Post's offices.
There's also great potential for Peterson to take his ambassadorship across the line of commercialism ala Cray and spread the word of the blues.
When Virginia B. Calvin got word that her South Bend, Ind., elementary school had been chosen as one of the nation's best, she made good on a promise to her pupils and kissed the concrete steps to the building.
'Must' is a law unto itself, if 'law' is the word I want."
The decision is the final word in the contentious dispute between the San Diego Yacht Club and the Mercury Bay Boating Club of New Zealand.