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Humans have been making objects out of wood since before there even was an English language, but the adjectival use of "wood" didn't come into being until the 14th century, and "wooden" didn't appear until the 16th. (The word wood has ancient roots, but it originally existed only as a noun.) In Middle English, the adjective of choice was "tree" or "treen," as in a "tree vessel" or "treen shoes." "Treen" in turn came from the Old English word trēowen, from the noun "trēow" ("tree") and the suffix -en, which was used to indicate that something was composed of a certain material. As far as we know, no one ever used "treen" figuratively to describe things that are stiff as a board, but "wooden" was put to broader use soon after it was first recorded.
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Examples of wooden in a Sentence
Stephania Taladrid, The New Yorker, 26 Oct. 2024
Sixty-seven rooms and suites are dotted across nine wooden chalets, which give the sensation of staying in your own private mountain farmhouse.
—Rooksana Hossenally, Forbes, 26 Oct. 2024
My husband’s MacGyver system for organizing lawn tools consists of nails precisely situated on a wooden beam underneath an outdoor staircase.
—Christina Shepherd McGuire, Better Homes & Gardens, 26 Oct. 2024
Although the carpet's been ripped up and the walls are paneled with wooden rods, the risers remain in the same configuration.
—Holly V. Hays, The Indianapolis Star, 25 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for wooden 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'wooden.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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“Wooden.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wooden. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.
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