From Middle English webbe, from Old English webb, from Proto-Germanic *wabją, from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ-.

• IPA: /wɛb/

web (plural webs)

1. The silken structure which a spider builds using silk secreted from the spinnerets at the caudal tip of its abdomen; a spiderweb.

   The sunlight glistened in the dew on the web.

2. (by extension) Any interconnected set of persons, places, or things, which, when diagrammed, resembles a spider's web.
   • 1828, Washington Irving, “Birth, Parentage, and Education of Columbus”, in A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: G. & C. Carvill, […], →OCLC ↗, book I, page 3 ↗:

     The time of his birth, his birth-place, his parentage, are all involved in obscurity; and such has been the perplexing ingenuity of commentators, that it is difficult to extricate the truth from the web of conjectures with which it is interwoven.

   • 1851 (indicated as 1852), Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Main-Street”, in The Snow-Image, and Other Twice-Told Tales, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC ↗, page 96 ↗:

     [T]he blame must rest on the sombre spirit of our forefathers, who wove their web of life with hardly a single thread of rose-color or gold, and not on me, who have a tropic-love of sunshine, and would gladly gild all the world with it, if I knew where to find so much.

3. (baseball) The part of a baseball mitt between the forefinger and thumb, the webbing.

   He caught the ball in the web.

4. A latticed or woven structure.

   The gazebo’s roof was a web made of thin strips of wood.

5. (usually with "spin", "weave", or similar verbs) A tall tale with more complexity than a myth or legend.

   Synonyms: yarn

   Careful—she knows how to spin a good web, but don't lean too hard on what she says.

6. A plot or scheme.
7. The interconnection between flanges in structural members, increasing the effective lever arm and so the load capacity of the member.
8. (rail transport) The thinner vertical section of a railway rail between the top (head) and bottom (foot) of the rail.

   Coordinate terms: head, foot

9. A fold of tissue connecting the toes of certain birds, or of other animals.
10. The series of barbs implanted on each side of the shaft of a feather, whether stiff and united together by barbules, as in ordinary feathers, or soft and separate, as in downy feathers.
11. (manufacturing) A continuous strip of material carried by rollers during processing.
12. (lithography) A long sheet of paper which is fed from a roll into a printing press, as opposed to individual sheets of paper.
13. (glassblowing, obsolete) A seventeenth-century unit of Rhenish glass containing 60 bunches.

    Synonyms: way

14. (dated) A band of webbing used to regulate the extension of the hood of a carriage.
15. A thin metal sheet, plate, or strip, as of lead.
    • 1600, [Torquato Tasso], “The Tenth Booke of Godfrey of Bulloigne”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold] Hatfield, for I[saac] Iaggard and M[atthew] Lownes, →OCLC ↗, stanza 26, page 184 ↗:

      […] And there with ſtately pompe by heapes they wend, / And Chriſtians ſlaine rolle vp in webs of lead […]

    1. The blade of a sword.
       • 1600, [Torquato Tasso], “The Second Booke of Godfrey of Bulloigne”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold] Hatfield, for I[saac] Iaggard and M[atthew] Lownes, →OCLC ↗, stanza 93, page 38 ↗:

         Argant a ſword, whereof the web was ſteele, / Pommell, rich ſtone ; hilts, gold, approu’d by tuch, / With rareſt workmanſhip all forged weele, / The curious art exceld the ſubſtance much.

    2. The blade of a saw.
    3. The thin, sharp part of a colter.
    4. The bit of a key.
16. (dated, US, radio, television) A major broadcasting network.
17. (architecture) A section of a groin vault, separated by ribs.
18. (medicine, archaic) A cataract of the eye.

    Synonyms: pin and web, web and pin

• French: réseau
• Italian: rete
• Portuguese: redena
• Russian: сеть
• Spanish: red

• French: panier, poche

• Russian: сеть

• French: âme
• Spanish: alma

• French: âme (de rail)
• Spanish: alma

• French: palmure
• Portuguese: palmura
• Russian: перепо́нка
• Spanish: membrana

• French: bobine, bande

• French: bande

• Italian: vela

1. Alternative case form of Web: the World Wide Web.

   I found it on the web.

   Let me search the web for that.

• French: Web, Toile
• German: Web
• Italian: Web, Rete
• Portuguese: net, rede, web
• Russian: сеть

web (webs, present participle webbing; simple past and past participle webbed)

1. (intransitive) To construct or form a web.
2. (transitive) To cover with a web or network.
3. (transitive) To ensnare or entangle.
4. (transitive) To provide with a web.
5. (transitive, obsolete) To weave.

• IPA: /wɛb/

1. The World Wide Web.

   Some of that content is now only available on the Web.

   Web page