wen

plural wens

1. A cyst on the skin; a tumor or wart.

   I am debating whether to risk scratching the right side of my jaw, where there is a wen.

   1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest […], Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 4

   4 more examples

   There was a Fellow with a Wen in his Neck, larger than five Woolpacks, and another with a couple of wooden Legs, each about twenty foot high.

   1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Country Described. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag), page [220]

   When I have met an immigrant tottering under a bundle which contained his all--looking like an enormous wen which had grown out of the nape of his neck--I have pitied him, not because that was his all, but because he had all that to carry.

   1854, Henry David Thoreau, Walden, Walden

   Creeps, foreigners with tinted, oily skin, wens, sties, cysts, wheezes, bad teeth, limps, staring or—worse—with Strange Faraway Smiles.

   1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow

   Wen, Wen, little Wen, here you must not build, here have no abode but you must go north to the nearby hill where, poor wretch, you have a brother.

   1999, Robert Lacey, Danny Danziger, The Year 1000: What life was like at the turn of The First Millennium, London: Abacus, published 2000, page 125

plural wens

1. obsoleteObsolete form of wynn (“the letter ƿ”).

1. alternativenot comparablepronunciation spellingAlternative spelling of when.

1. alternativepronunciation spellingAlternative spelling of when.

1. alternativepronunciation spellingAlternative spelling of when.

1. alternativepronunciation spellinguncountableAlternative spelling of when.

plural Wens

1. A common surname from Chinese of east Asian derivation.

   To find out more, I spoke with CNN wellness expert Dr. Leana Wen. Wen, a mother of two young kids, is an emergency physician and adjunct associate professor at the George Washington University.

   2024 May 1, Katia Hetter, “Why is a mother’s mental health so important? A doctor explains”, in CNN