Words / W / General

writhe

verb/raɪð/

B2CEFR level
38/100Rarity: fairly common
NeutralRegister

To twist and squirm the body, typically in pain or discomfort.

He writhed on the ground, clutching his knee after the tackle.

Similar: squirm, wriggle, contort

Origin: Old English 'wrīþan', to twist.

Topic: twisting motion in General English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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