well

Meanings

Adverb

• Accurately, competently, satisfactorily.
• Completely, fully.
• To a significant degree.
• Very (as a general-purpose intensifier).
• In a desirable manner; so as one could wish; satisfactorily; favourably; advantageously.

Adjective

• In good health.
• Good, content.
• Prudent; good; well-advised.

Noun

• A hole sunk into the ground as a source of water, oil, natural gas or other fluids.
• A place where a liquid such as water surfaces naturally; a spring.
• A small depression suitable for holding liquid or other objects.
• A source of supply.
• A vertical, cylindrical trunk in a ship, reaching down to the lowest part of the hull, through which the bilge pumps operate.
• The cockpit of a sailboat.
• A compartment in the middle of the hold of a fishing vessel, made tight at the sides, but having holes perforated in the bottom to let in water to keep fish alive while they are transported to market.
• A vertical passage in the stern into which an auxiliary screw propeller may be drawn up out of the water.
• A hole or excavation in the earth, in mining, from which run branches or galleries.
• An opening through the floors of a building, as for a staircase or an elevator; a wellhole.
• The open space between the bench and the counsel tables in a courtroom.
• The lower part of a furnace, into which the metal falls.
• A well drink.
• The playfield of Tetris and similar video games, into which the blocks fall.
• In a microtiter plate, each of the small equal circular or square sections which serve as test tubes.

Verb

• To issue forth, as water from the earth; to flow; to spring.
• To have something seep out of the surface.

Related

Similar words

• like, you know
• I mean, like
• so
• see, look, as if
• shaft

Origin

• From Middle English wel, wal, wol, wele, from Old English wel, from Proto-Germanic *wela, *wala, from Proto-Indo-European *welh₁-. Cognate with Scots wele, weil, North Frisian wel, weil, wal, West Frisian wol, Dutch wel, Low German wol, German wol, wohl, Norwegian and Danish vel, Swedish väl, Icelandic vel, val. Related to will.
• From Middle English welle, from Old English wielle, from Proto-Germanic *wallijǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *welH-. Cognate with West Frisian wel, Dutch wel, German Low German Welle, German Welle, Danish væld, Swedish väl, Icelandic vella.
• From Middle English wellen, from Old English willan, wyllan, wellan and Old English weallan, from Proto-West Germanic *wallijan, from Proto-Germanic *wallijaną, *wallaną.
• Cognate with German wallen, Danish vælde, Norwegian Nynorsk vella and outside Germanic, with Albanian valë.