Definition of WERGELD

wergeld

Plural: wergelds

Noun

  • A compensation payment for a death or injury in ancient Germanic law.
  • 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, distinct from bloodwite.
  • Compensation thus determined and paid; a reparative payment.

Examples

  • His opponent tried to claim a WERGELD of points, but the challenge was unsuccessful.

Origin / Etymology

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

Synonyms

wer

Scrabble Score: 12

wergeld: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
wergeld: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
wergeld: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 14

wergeld: valid Words With Friends Word