wisp means A small bundle, as of straw or other like substance; a twisted handful of something; any slender, flexible structure or group. It carries an Arena rating of 1765, earned across 7 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, wisp ranks #681 of 17,115 for Most Vivid Words, #910 of 17,123 for Most Malleable Words, #2,572 of 17,130 for Most Ingenious Words, #2,603 of 17,113 for Most Elegant Words.
wisp is pronounced /wɪsp/.
Why “wisp” is a great word
A small, thin, or delicate bundle, strand, or line, as of straw, hair, cloud, or smoke. From Middle English wispe, wyspe, perhaps from an unrecorded Old English *wisp, *wips; cognate with West Frisian wisp, Dutch wisp ("bundle of hay or straw"), and Scandinavian words like Norwegian/Swedish visp ("handful of grass, hay"), first attested in the late 13th century. Unlike a “strand,” which implies a single, cohesive filament, or a “shred,” which suggests a rough fragment torn from a whole, a wisp is a loose, slight gathering, airy to the point of near-invisibility. It is the last breath of morning fog on a barbed-wire fence, a few stray hairs in a shaft of afternoon light, the faint trail from a snuffed candle—a presence so slight it seems made of absence itself.
Etymology
From Middle English wispe, wyspe, wips, wipse, perhaps from an unrecorded Old English *wisp, *wips. Cognate with West Frisian wisp, Dutch wisp (“bundle of hay or straw”), Norwegian bokmål/Swedish/Bornholm Danish visp (“handful or bundle of grass, hay, etc.”). Akin also to Middle Dutch/Middle Low German wispel (“measure of grain”).
noun
- A small bundle, as of straw or other like substance; a twisted handful of something; any slender, flexible structure or group.e.g.“A wisp of hair escaped her barrette and whipped wildly in the wind.”
- A small, thin line of cloud, smoke, or steam.e.g.“A wisp of smoke rose from the candle for a few moments after he blew it out.”
- A whisk, or small broom.
- A will o' the wisp, or ignis fatuus.e.g.“the wisp that flickers where no foot can tread”
- An immeasurable, indefinable essence of life; soul.e.g.““She would get nothing from him, she saw, resentfully. Then some angel of grace lent her a few wisps, which she grasped.”
- A flock of snipe.e.g.“They shift their quarters in the early part of the season very suddenly, and if a man hears of a wisp of snipe in any particular place, he must be off at once.”
- A disease affecting the feet of cattle.
verb
- To brush or dress, as with a wisp.e.g.“The very same head of hair, wisp'd, and matted together, would make the most disagreeable figure.”
- To rumple.
- To produce a wisp, as of smoke.
- To emit in wisps.e.g.“It looked warm and rosy-bright inside, with a little chimney wisping smoke, little windows glowing.”
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- wispen 77% match — Formed of a wisp; wispy. vs wisp →
- wispy 76% match — Consisting of or resembling a wisp; like a slender, flexible strand or bundle. vs wisp →
- wase 59% match — A bundle of straw, or other material, to relieve the pressure of burdens carried upon the head. vs wisp →
- widdy 59% match — A rope or halter made of flexible twigs or withes or such vs wisp →
- withe 58% match — A flexible, slender shoot or twig, especially when used as a band or for binding; a withy. vs wisp →
- whiff 58% match — A brief, gentle breeze; a light gust of air; a waft. vs wisp →
- wisket 57% match — A basket. vs wisp →
- skein 57% match — A quantity of thread, yarn, etc., wound on a reel then removed and loosely knotted into an oblong shape; a skein of cotton is formed by eighty turns of thread around a reel with a fifty-four inch diameter. vs wisp →