I researched the word “wild” in both the Marriam-Webster dictionary and in the Cambridge dictionary and found many different definitions for the word, meaning that the word can be used in multiple ways. Both also showed that the word can be used as an adjective, noun and adverb. The Marriam-Webster dictionary adjective description included definitions such as “living in a state of nature and not ordinarily tame or domesticated,” “not subject to restraint or regulation,” and “barbaric.” These different definitions hold different connotations; “barbaric” typically has a very negative connotation. In the Cambridge dictionary, the adjective form of the word included the definitions “uncontrolled,” “natural,” and “not thought about.” Some of these definitions hold very different connotations than some from the Marriam-Webster dictionary; the definition “natural” does not have a negative connotation at all, but is instead more neutral. When the word is used as a noun, I found that there were not as many variations of definitions as there were for the adjective form of the word. The noun definition mainly holds the meaning of being a place or region that is independent of humans and is of the natural form of Earth.
To me, the word “wild” can be used to describe something that is out of the ordinary in human civilization. This word could be used to describe something that is “in the wild” where human civilization does not exist, or also the be used to describe something that is crazy. However, after researching the many definitions provided in the two dictionaries previously mentioned, I have realized that the word “wild” could hold many different meanings depending on the context of the sentence in which it is used.
Anna Ranslem