woad

2 synonyms for woad, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.

Noun — Woad is a plant, Isatis tinctoria, traditionally grown for the blue dye taken from its leaves.

Synonyms

Rare, literary or technical

Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.

indigo indigotin

How to use woad

The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.

dyed with woad a field of woad blue as woad woad dye

Woad is mostly used today in historical, craft or gardening contexts rather than everyday speech.

Etymology

Woad comes from the Old English word wād, which itself goes back through early Germanic forms to a much older root. Related words for the same plant or dye appear in Old Frisian, Dutch and German, and separately in French and Italian, which borrowed their terms from a Germanic source. The modern English word 'weed' is...

Full origin of woad →

Frequently asked questions

What is woad?

Woad is a plant that was traditionally used to produce a blue dye, and the name also refers to the dye itself.

What colour does woad dye produce?

It produces a deep blue, similar to the colour later associated with indigo.

Is woad the same as indigo?

They are different plants, but woad and indigo were both used historically to make blue dye, and woad is sometimes described using the word indigo.

People also searched

indigo indigotin

Nearby words

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