1: a heavily wooded area : forestthe Weald of Kent
2: a wild or uncultivated usually upland region
Did You Know?
If weald were a tree, it would have many annual rings. It has been in use as a general word for "forest" since the days of Old English, and it has also long been used, in its capitalized form, as a geographic name for a once-heavily forested region of southeast England. Weald is also often capitalized today when used to refer to wooded areas like the Weald of Kent and the Weald of Sussex in England. In time, the word branched out to designate any wild and uncultivated upland regions. A related word is wold, meaning "an upland plain or stretch of rolling land."
First Known Use of weald
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1
History and Etymology for weald
the Weald, England, from Middle English weeld, from Old English weald forest — more at wold
