Wales
//weɪlz// name, noun, verb
name, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 plural of wale form-of, plural
Verb
- 1 third-person singular simple present indicative of wale form-of, indicative, present, singular, third-person
Proper Noun
- 1 One of the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom, formerly a principality. countable, uncountable
"Meronyms: North Wales, South Wales; see also Category:Places in Wales"
- 2 The area in which the Welsh language and culture predominated, roughly coincident with the modern country. countable, historical, uncountable
- 3 A surname. countable, uncountable
- 4 A village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England (OS grid ref SK4883). countable, uncountable
- 5 A number of places in the United States:; A city in Alaska. countable, uncountable
Show 7 more definitions
- 6 A number of places in the United States:; A town in Maine. countable, uncountable
- 7 A number of places in the United States:; A town in Massachusetts. countable, uncountable
- 8 A number of places in the United States:; A town in New York. countable, uncountable
- 9 A number of places in the United States:; A city in North Dakota. countable, uncountable
- 10 A number of places in the United States:; A town in Utah. countable, uncountable
- 11 A number of places in the United States:; A village in Wisconsin. countable, uncountable
- 12 A submerged ghost town in Ontario, Canada. countable, uncountable
Example
More examples"England proper does not include Wales."
Etymology
From Middle English Wales, from Old English Wēalas, plural of wealh (“Celt, Welsh person”), from Proto-West Germanic *walh, from Proto-Germanic *walhaz (“Celt, Roman”). Compare the second element in Cornwall, and also Gaul.
Related phrases
More for "wales"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.