Word
wrought
US/ˈɹɔt/
UK/ɹˈɔːt/
Definition
adj. made or shaped by hand or with great effort. It often describes things made of metal or changes that have been caused by something powerful.
adj. shaped or fashioned by work or effort; frequently used to describe metalwork or as a past-participial form indicating that something has been brought about or caused.
Examples
“The gate is made of beautiful wrought iron.”
“The heavy storm wrought havoc on the small coastal village, destroying several wooden piers.”
“The poet's carefully wrought verses reflect years of meticulous revision and a deep commitment to the classical tradition of formal structure.”
Examples
simple
“The gate is made of beautiful wrought iron.”
contextual
“The heavy storm wrought havoc on the small coastal village, destroying several wooden piers.”
complex
“The poet's carefully wrought verses reflect years of meticulous revision and a deep commitment to the classical tradition of formal structure.”
Usage
Primarily used as a participial adjective (e.g., 'wrought iron') or in the fixed expression 'wrought havoc'.
Pitfall
The storm has wroughted damage.
The storm has wrought damage.
Wrought is already a past form of 'work'; adding '-ed' is a double-marking error.
Real-World Examples
“Passage is an exquisitely wrought novel which, for all its understated, filigree texture, reverberates in the mind with poetic force.” “The Sussexes’ narrowed Netflix deal and split with Spotify coincided with content providers cutting back on their big celebrity bets, and the chaos being wrought by the rapid rise of the creator economy.” Etymology
The past participle of Middle English werken (“to work”), from Old English wyrċan (past tense worhte, past participle (ġe)worht; cf. also the metathetic variant (ġe)wroht), from Proto-West Germanic wurkijan, from Proto-Germanic wurkijaną (“to work”), from Proto-Indo-European *werǵ- (“to work”). Doublet of worked. Cognate with wright (as in wheelwright etc.), Dutch gewrocht, archaic past participle of werken (archaic past tense wrocht), Low German wracht, archaic past participle of warken (archaic past tense wrach, archaic past participle wracht).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/wrought