weald means the physiographic area in south-east England situated between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It carries an Arena rating of 1609, earned across 30 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, weald ranks #1,436 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #1,965 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #2,214 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #3,350 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words.
weald is pronounced /wiːld/.
Why “weald” is a great word
WEALD — [Noun] A tract of forested or wooded country, particularly the ancient forested region between the North and South Downs in southeastern England. From Middle English weeld, from Old English weald (West Saxon) and wald (Anglian) meaning "forest, wooded upland," from Proto-Germanic *walthuz. Unlike "forest" — a broad, unmarked term for dense woodland — or "wold" — which denotes open, rolling uplands — a weald is a named and storied tract, a landscape dense with history. It is the deep, clay-heavy soil that resists the plough; the sunken paths worn by charcoal-burners and ironworkers; and the stubborn, shadowed greenery pressing against the encircling chalk hills — the enduring, overlooked heart of a country, quietly persisting beneath its more celebrated geography.
name
- The physiographic area in south-east England situated between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs.
- A hamlet in Bampton parish, West Oxfordshire district, Oxfordshire, England (OS grid ref SP3002).
- Former name of Sevenoaks Weald, a village in Kent, England; possibly still used as a synonym.
noun
- A forest or wood.
- An open country.e.g.“[S]he to Almesbury / Fled all night long by glimmering waste and weald, / And heard the Spirits of the waste and weald / Moan as she fled, or thought she heard them moan: […]” — 1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Guinevere”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 231:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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