Jump To:

• ward
  ward

  noun

  a division or district of a city or town, as for administrative or political purposes.
• Ward
  Ward

  noun

  (Aaron) Montgomery, 1843–1913, U.S. merchant and mail-order retailer.
• -ward
  -ward

  a native English suffix denoting spatial or temporal direction, as specified by the initial element.

ward

¹ American  

[wawrd] / wɔrd /

noun

• wards
  plural

1. a division or district of a city or town, as for administrative or political purposes.

   Synonyms:

   precinct

2. one of the districts into which certain English and Scottish boroughs are divided.

3. a division, floor, or room of a hospital for a particular class or group of patients.

   a convalescent ward; a critical ward.

4. any of the separate divisions of a prison.

5. a political subdivision of a parish in Louisiana.

6. Mormon Church. one of the subdivisions of a stake, presided over by a bishop.

7. Fortification. an open space within or between the walls of a castle or fortified place.

   the castle's lower ward.

8. Law.

   1. a person, especially a minor, who has been legally placed under the care of a guardian or a court.

   2. the state of being under the care or control of a legal guardian.

   3. guardianship over a minor or some other person legally incapable of managing their own affairs.

9. the state of being under restraining guard or in custody.

10. a person who is under the protection or control of another.

    Synonyms:

    protégé

11. a movement or posture of defense, as in fencing.

12. a curved ridge of metal inside a lock, forming an obstacle to the passage of a key that does not have a corresponding notch.

13. the notch or slot in the bit of a key into which such a ridge fits.

14. the act of keeping guard or protective watch.

    watch and ward.

15. Archaic. a company of guards or a garrison.

---

verb (used with object)

• wards,
  present (3rd person singular)
• warded,
  past participle,  past
• warding
  present participle

1. to avert, repel, or turn aside (danger, harm, an attack, an assailant, etc.) (usually followed byoff ).

   to ward off a blow; to ward off evil.

   Synonyms:

   prevent, parry

2. to place in a ward, as of a hospital or prison.

3. Archaic. to protect; guard.

Ward ² American  

[wawrd] / wɔrd /

noun

1. (Aaron) Montgomery, 1843–1913, U.S. merchant and mail-order retailer.

2. Artemas 1727–1800, American general in the American Revolution.

3. Artemus Charles Farrar Browne, 1834–67, U.S. humorist.

4. Barbara Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth, 1914–81, English economist and author.

5. Mrs. Humphry Mary Augusta Arnold, 1851–1920, English novelist, born in Tasmania.

6. Sir Joseph George, 1856–1930, New Zealand statesman, born in Australia: prime minister of New Zealand 1906–12, 1928–30.

7. Lester Frank, 1841–1913, U.S. sociologist.

8. Nathaniel Theodore de la Guard, 1578?–1652, English clergyman, lawyer, and author in America.

9. a male given name.

---

-ward ³ American  

1. a native English suffix denoting spatial or temporal direction, as specified by the initial element.

   toward; seaward; afterward; backward.

---

ward ¹ British  

/ wɔːd /

noun

1. (in many countries) a district into which a city, town, parish, or other area is divided for administration, election of representatives, etc

2. a room in a hospital, esp one for patients requiring similar kinds of care

   a maternity ward

3. one of the divisions of a prison

4. an open space enclosed within the walls of a castle

5. law

   1. Also called: ward of court.  a person, esp a minor or one legally incapable of managing his own affairs, placed under the control or protection of a guardian or of a court

   2. guardianship, as of a minor or legally incompetent person

6. the state of being under guard or in custody

7. a person who is under the protection or in the custody of another

8. a means of protection

9. 1. an internal ridge or bar in a lock that prevents an incorrectly cut key from turning

   2. a corresponding groove cut in a key

10. a less common word for warden 1

---

verb

1. archaic (tr) to guard or protect

Ward ² British  

/ wɔːd /

noun

1. Dame Barbara ( Mary ), Baroness Jackson. 1914–81, British economist, environmentalist, and writer. Her books include Spaceship Earth (1966)

2. Mrs Humphry, married name of Mary Augusta Arnold. 1851–1920, English novelist. Her novels include Robert Elsmere (1888) and The Case of Richard Meynell (1911)

3. Sir Joseph George. 1856–1930, New Zealand statesman; prime minister of New Zealand (1906–12; 1928–30)

---

-ward ³ British  

suffix

1. (forming adjectives) indicating direction towards

   a backward step

   heavenward progress

2. (forming adverbs) a variant and the usual US and Canadian form of -wards

---

Spelling

Both -ward and -wards occur in such words as backward, forward, upward, and toward. The -ward form is by far the more common in edited American English writing.

Usage

What does -ward mean? The suffix -ward is used to mean "in the direction of," either in time or space. It is often used in everyday and technical terms. The form -ward comes from Old English -weard, meaning “towards.”What are variants of -ward?The suffix -ward is more common in North American English. In British English, the variant -wards, as in towards, is more commonly used. Want to know more? Read our Words That Use article on -wards.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• wardless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• wards
  plural

Participles

• warding
  present
• warded
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• ward
  simple
• wards
  simple
• have warded
  perfect
• has warded
  perfect
• am warding
  progressive
• are warding
  progressive
• is warding
  progressive
• have been warding
  perfect progressive
• has been warding
  perfect progressive

Past

• warded
  simple
• had warded
  perfect
• was warding
  progressive
• were warding
  progressive
• had been warding
  perfect progressive

Future

• will ward
  simple
• will have warded
  perfect
• will be warding
  progressive
• will have been warding
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of ward¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English noun warde, Old English weard; Middle English verb warde(n), Old English weardian; cognate with Middle Dutch waerden, German warten; cf. guard

Origin of -ward³

Middle English; Old English -weard towards; cognate with German -wärts; akin to Latin vertere to turn ( see verse)

Explanation

A ward is a group of rooms or a section in a hospital or prison; in a hospital, different wards deal with different needs, like the psychiatric ward or maternity ward. Although ward is most often used in connection with hospitals and prisons, cities and towns can also be broken into wards. These are usually geographic areas that are used in elections: city council members often represent wards of the city. A ward is also the name given to a child who is watched over by someone other than his parents. Sometimes children are known as "wards of the state," meaning they have been taken from their homes.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ward Ward -ward wards warded warding

It found no evidence that the staff in the unit had been trained or had ever rehearsed how to evacuate the ward of newborns, many of whom were premature or "medically fragile".

From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026

"The entire ward was filled with smoke, we could not see anything," he told the BBC.

From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026

Several babies in the ward were on oxygen support, but the report says that while oxygen may have intensified the fire, there isn't evidence that it created a pathway for it to spread.

From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026

Biohackers are turning to the shingles vaccine to ward off heart issues and delay dementia, but doctors want to see clinical evidence from rigorous medical studies before making the case to their patients.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026

To ward off an aggressive black bear, Herrero suggests making a lot of noise, banging pots and pans together, throwing sticks and rocks, and “running at the bear.”

From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson

“Kim’s major concern isn’t North Korean workers getting killed,” said Peter Ward, a research fellow at the Sejong Institute, a think tank in Seoul.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026

The Kim regime is diversifying its revenue stream by sending more female workers, said Ward of the Sejong Institute.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026

“That sort of reinforced his fear that he had to be twice as good to get half the chance,” said Ward, the co-author of Pride’s biography.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2026

His offensive line coach, Chris Ward, is less humble when talking about his best player.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2026

Mr. Ward thinks I have a good chance of getting a scholarship.

From "Bronx Masquerade" by Nikki Grimes

As a suffix -wood is sometimes a corruption of -ward, e.g.

From The Romance of Names by Ernest Weekley

Some of the occupative names in -ward and -herd are rather deceptive.

From The Romance of Words (4th ed.) by Ernest Weekley

Names in -ward are rather numerous, and, as they mostly come from the titles of rural officials and are often confused with compounds of -herd, they are all put together here.

From The Romance of Names by Ernest Weekley

Just a few metres away, life was returning to the hospital, with patients admitted to wards while doctors and nurses bustled around the facility's maze-like corridors.

From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026

A Section 60 order is now in force across eight Brent wards, giving police enhanced stop and search powers.

From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026

For two decades, the only shield against respiratory syncytial virus, which fills pediatric wards each winter, was a drug called Synagis.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026

There is no "strong independent evidence" that a monitoring system used widely in mental health wards has improved patient safety, an inquiry has heard.

From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026

The eight were grim as they approached the boxcars containing their wards.

From "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut

The men warded off thirst by sucking on buttons and kept warm by dipping their clothes into the bath-like sea.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 20, 2026

Their agreement to testify warded off potential contempt-of-Congress proceedings against them.

From BBC ● Feb. 26, 2026

They were also revered as talismans that warded off evil spirits.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 2, 2025

The drug, called lolamicin, also warded off secondary infections with Clostridioides difficile, a common and dangerous hospital-associated bacterial infection, and was effective against more than 130 multidrug-resistant bacterial strains in cell culture.

From Science Daily ● May 29, 2024

Whatever night-fancies and night-noises crowded on me, they never warded off this DON’T GO HOME.

From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens

Praised for warding off pests, so-called bodega cats are also a cultural fixture for New Yorkers, some of whom are now pushing to enshrine legal rights for the little store helpers.

From Barron's ● Feb. 10, 2026

The subsidy-fueled gold rush emboldened unions to squeeze producers, warding off studios looking for inexpensive film locations.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026

He stayed in his truck outside the affordable senior complex, trying to keep an eye on things: warding off looters, putting out ember flare-ups, responding to flooding when the building’s sprinklers finally burst back on.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 17, 2025

Social media–savvy psychologists and life coaches have created a cottage industry of warding off and healing from narcissists.

From Slate ● Jul. 23, 2025

It was a kind of duty, perhaps a way of adding a little good luck to the voyage, or warding off the bad.

From "Farewell to Manzanar" by Jeanne Houston

Related Words

• department
• parish
• precinct