Woorden

Woord is the Dutch word for a unit of language that carries meaning and functions syntactically within sentences. The plural form is woorden. In everyday use, woorden are written as separate units divided by spaces, although many Dutch words are compound items that function as a single lexical unit.

Word formation and grammar: Dutch builds new words through compounding (for example koffiemachine, tandenborstel), and through derivation with prefixes and suffixes (onmogelijk, verrassend). Nouns form plurals with -en or -s (boek, boeken; foto, foto's). Adjectives agree with the noun in number and definiteness, such that een groot huis versus de grote huizen. Verbs conjugate for person and tense (ik loop, jij loopt, wij lopen).

Orthography: The Dutch spelling system is maintained by De Taalunie. Words are typically separated by spaces; hyphenation is used for long compounds or line breaks; capitalization follows standard rules for proper nouns and sentence initial words.

Etymology and relation to other languages: The noun woord is cognate with English word and German Wort, all deriving from a common West Germanic root. This reflects a shared linguistic heritage among Dutch, English, and German.

Usage and study: In linguistics, words are studied as building blocks of lexicon, morphology, and semantics. The Dutch lexicon continues to expand through loanwords and productive word formation, especially in technology and culture.