Standard Lemma guide

wergeld

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈwɛəɡɛld/
  • General-American: /ˈweɹɡɛld/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Blood money, the monetary value assigned to a person, set according to their rank, used to determine the compensation paid by the perpetrator of a crime to the victim in the case of injury or to the victim's kindred in the case of homicide; such a reparative payment or compensation.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, especially, historical, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: wer

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Old English werġeld, wereġeld (“compensation for a man killed”), from Proto-West Germanic *werageld. More at wer, geld.

Across languages

Translations

47 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: دِيَة (diya) — Translations
  • Bulgarian: кръ́внина (krǎ́vnina) — Translations
  • Ngazidja Comorian: diya — Translations
  • Danish: mandebod — Translations
  • Dutch: weergeld — Translations
  • Dutch: bloedprijs — Translations
  • Dutch: bloedgeld — Translations
  • Finnish: sukusakko — Translations
  • Finnish: veriraha — Translations
  • French: prix du sang — Translations
  • French: wergeld — Translations
  • French: weregild — Translations
  • French: wergild — Translations
  • Old French: were — Translations
  • West-Frisian: manneboet — Translations
  • German: Wergeld — Translations
  • German: Manngeld — Translations
  • German: Blutgeld — Translations
  • Greek: ποινή (poiní) — Translations
  • Ancient Greek: ποινή (poinḗ) — Translations
  • Hungarian: vérdíj — Translations
  • Hungarian: vérpénz — Translations
  • Irish: airgead fola — Translations
  • Italian: guidrigildo — Translations
  • Latin: weregildum — Translations
  • Macedonian: крвнина (krvnina) — Translations
  • Persian: خونبها (xunbahâ) — Translations
  • Polish: główszczyzna — Translations
  • Russian: ви́ра (víra) — Translations
  • Russian: ве́ргельд (vérgelʹd) — Translations
  • Serbo-Croatian: крва̀рина — Translations
  • Serbo-Croatian: крвнѝна — Translations
  • Serbo-Croatian: вражда — Translations
  • Serbo-Croatian: krvàrina — Translations
  • Serbo-Croatian: krvnìna f vražda — Translations
  • Spanish: precio de la sangre — Translations
  • Spanish: wergild — Translations
  • Swahili: diya — Translations
  • Swedish: mansbot — Translations
  • Tigrinya: ጋር (gar) — Translations
  • Turkish: diyet — Translations
  • Turkish: kefaret — Translations
  • Turkish: kan akçesi — Translations
  • Turkish: kan parası — Translations
  • Ukrainian: ви́ра (výra) — Translations
  • Welsh: galanas — Translations
  • Welsh: sarhad — Translations