Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Wharf |
WharfNoun1. A platform built out from the shore into the water and supported by piles; provides access to ships and boats. Verb1. Provide with a wharf; "Wharf the mouth of the river". 2. Store on a wharf; "Wharf the merchandise". 3. Discharge at a wharf; "wharf the passengers". 4. Come into or dock at a wharf; "the big ship wharfed in the evening". 5. Moor at a wharf, of vessels; "The ship was wharfed". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "wharf" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1601. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Building & Civil Engineering | A floating platform, usually anchored at the end of a wharf or pier, for the landing or embarking of passengers and goods. Source: European Union. (references) |
Tips from 1870 | Usage: Wharf, Dock. These words are sometimes confounded. The wharf is the pier, or landing, upon which the vessel unloads her cargo. The dock is the artificial waterway, or basin, formed by the wharves. "The vessel came into the dock and was made fast to the wharf." Usage: Wharf. Plural, generally wharves in America; wharfs in England. Source: Slips of Speech. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A wharf is a fixed platform, commonly on pilings, roughly parallel to and alongside navigable water, where ships are loaded and unloaded. A pier extends perpendicular to the shore.Related terms dock -- harbor -- marina -- pier -- drydock -- floating dock.
Well known wharves
- Canary Wharf, London, England, part of the London Docklands and now redeveloped into commercial space which contains the three tallest buildings in Britain.
- Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco, USA, now redeveloped into a tourist area with stores and restaurants instead of serving its maritime purpose.
Derby Wharf, Salem, MA
- Derby (1762), Hatch's (1819) and Central (1791) Wharves in Salem, Massachusetts are the last of the 50 wharves which lined Salem harbor. They are part of the Salem Maritime National Historic Site, the only remaining intact waterfront from the US age of sail. In 1790, Salem was the sixth largest city in the country.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Wharf."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
| whf | English | Wharf | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
Synonyms: WharfSynonyms: dock (n), pier (n), wharfage (n), berth (v), moor (v). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Abode | Anchorage, roadstead, roads; dock, basin, wharf, quay, port, harbor. |
Mart | Wharf; office, chambers, countinghouse, bureau; counter, compter. |
Ship | Quadrireme, trireme; stern-wheeler; wanigan, wangan, wharf boat. |
Workshop | Hive, hive of industry; nursery; hothouse, hotbed; kitchen; mint, forge, loom; dock, dockyard; alveary; armory; laboratory, lab, refinery; cannery; power plant; beauty parlor;beehive, bindery, forcing pit, nailery, usine, slip, yard, wharf; foundry, foundery; furnace; vineyard. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Wharf |
| English words defined with "wharf": berth, bitt, bollard, Breastfast, Bulked line ♦ Ghaut ♦ headfast ♦ Jetty ad ♦ landing stage ♦ Moor ♦ portwatcher ♦ quay ♦ Relieving tackle ♦ shipside, Stade, Staith, Stern fast ♦ Wharf boat, wharfage, Wharfed, Wharfing, Wharfinger, Wharfs, Wharves. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "wharf": BRIDGE OPERATOR, SLIP, bridge tender ♦ CAPTAIN, FISHING VESSEL ♦ DEQ, Dock ♦ Galley Pence ♦ HOT-CAR OPERATOR ♦ mooring post ♦ secondary water terminal, slip tender, sufferance bond, sufferance wharf ♦ Terms of Sale ♦ WHARF TENDER. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Well son, that's Mars, the fourth planet from the sun. What it's doing down here on the wharf I don't know (Family Guy; writing credit: Dolores Payás) Ain't got no sea craft, I got me dinghy and it's under the wharf. (Popeye; writing credit: Jules Feiffer; E.C. Segar) Okay, we got 15¢ docking tax, 72¢ new in town tax, and one dollar leaving your junk lying around the wharf tax, so all together, you owe the comidor $1.87 (Popeye; writing credit: Jules Feiffer; E.C. Segar) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Wharf (1970) Hangman's Wharf (1950) Fisherman's Wharf (1939) Wharf Angel (1934) The Wharf Rat (1916) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
References |
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Books |
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Periodicals |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Portable automatic tide gauge at old Stone Wharf Tides party of Glendon Boothe. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |  | A southwestern view of East Boston as seen from Lewis's Wharf, East Boston ferryway. East Boston was formerly known as Noddle's Island. The Maverick Hotel, named for Samuel Maverick a 17th Century colonist, is the large building in the center. In: Historical Collections ... of Every Town in Massachusetts. 1841. Credit: America's Coastlines. |
 | The sponge auction wharf at Key West. In: "The Sponge Fishery of Florida in 1900" by John N. Cobb. Report of the Commissioner for the Year Ending June 30, 1902. P. 175, Plate 9. Credit: Fisheries. |  | Bringing sponges from the vessels to sponge wharf at Key West. In: "The Sponge Fishery of Florida in 1900" by John N. Cobb. Report of the Commissioner for the Year Ending June 30, 1902. P. 163, Plate 6. Credit: Fisheries. |
 | Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. Hermissenda, Hermissenda crassicornis, also known as the Opalescent Sea Slug, is found in a variety of habitats including mud flats, rocky shores and wharf pilings. Its body is up to 80 mm long. Its dorsal surface has a single orange stripe and bright "electric blue lines, but otherwise is variable in color. Kodiak to Baja California. Credit: National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERR). |  | Whale ships at New Bedford wharf; ship hove down for repairs; oil-casks From photograph by U. S. Fish Commission. Credit: National Marine Fisheries Historical Image Collection. |
 | Discharging fare of George's Bank cod at Gloucester wharf Drawing by H. W. Elliott, 1882. Credit: National Marine Fisheries Historical Image Collection. |  | Portion of Siboney, Cuba, showing beach and wharf. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |
 | [Unloading patients at wharf, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, for transfer to H. S. Relief]. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |  | Alongside a wharf, probably in a European port, circa 1920. Credit: NAVY. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
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| "Wharf 1" by Erika Thorpe Commentary: "The fishing wharf at the San Diego marina." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | Another projected plan, while not included in the current budget, is the extension of the railway to the wharf itself. (references) | |
They are also working on a mobile bridge that will link the Reus and Lleida wharves (to be finished by the end of 1999) and a new wharf (the so called Aragon Wharf) that will add another 330 hectares to the port. The total investment will reach 50,000 million Pesetas by the end of 2000 when all these projects should be finished. (references) | ||
Economic History | Nicaragua | El Rama is a floating steel wharf and is located on the Rama River, 40 miles from the Altlantic coast. (references) |
Dominican Rep | Haina, located just outside the capital city, has a 2,600-foot long, 35-foot draft wharf, a 40-ton container crane and a 60-acre container yard. (references) | |
Hong Kong | In May 2001, futures contracts for seventeen local stocks traded at the Exchange: CITIC Pacific, Cheung Kong Holdings, CLP Holdings, HSBC Holdings, Hang Seng Bank, Henderson Land, Pacific Century CyberWorks, China Telecom (Hong Kong), Hopewell Holdings, Hutchison Whampoa, New World Development, Sun Hung Kai Properties, Swire Pacific 'A', Wharf Holdings, China Resource Enterprise, Hong Kong Electric Holdings and Shanghai Industrial Holdings. (references) | |
Trade | Guyana | Since the Customs Department (like many government agencies) is extremely understaffed, the mandatory inspection often results in extended waits on the wharf. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Wharf" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 86.15% of the time. "Wharf" is used about 231 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 86.15% | 199 | 21,651 |
| Noun (proper) | 11.69% | 27 | 66,962 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 0.87% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Noun (common) | 0.87% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 0.43% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 231 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Country | Name | Country | Name |
| China | Shenzhen Chiwan Wharf Holdings Ltd | Hong Kong | The Wharf (Holdings) Limited |
| Japan | Toyo Wharf & Warehouse Co., Ltd. | United Kingdom | Canary Wharf Group Plc |
| (more examples...) |
Source: compiled by the editor from Icon Group International, Inc.
Expressions using "wharf": coal wharf ♦ Hummels Wharf ♦ sufferance wharf ♦ wharf boat ♦ wharf rat. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "wharf": wharf-side, wharf-weed. | |
Ending with "wharf": coal-wharf, puddle-wharf, Sapir-wharf. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "wharf"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | perron (platform, quay). (various references) | |
Albanian | skelë (bunder, gang board, Harbor, harborage, harbour, harbourage, landing, mole, pier, port, scaffold, scaffolding, stage, staging, water front). (various references) | |
Arabic | رصيف الميناء (landing stage, quay, stage), رصف (alignment, be compact, cobble, collocate, collocation, dress, pave, paving). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | складирам на кей, разтоварвам на кей, товаря на кей, кей (cob, embankment, front, jetty, landing stage, levee, moorage, pier, quay, slip), закотвям в пристан, пристан (flying bridge, levee, mole, moorage, pier). (various references) | |
Chinese | 碼頭 (dock, pier), 码头 (Pier, Quay, Wharfs). (various references) | |
Cornish | cay. (various references) | |
Czech | zakotvit u nábřeží, přístavištì (berth, docks, landing place, quay), molo (jetty, mole, pier). (various references) | |
Danish | perron (platform, quay, railway platform), kaj (platform, quay). (various references) | |
Dutch | kaai (platform, quay), wal (bank, border, edge, platform, quay, rampart, ring, shore), perron (platform, quay), kade (platform, quay), aanlegplaats (landing-stage, pier, platform, quay). (various references) | |
Esperanto | kajo (platform, platform gate, quay). (various references) | |
Faeroese | pallur (platform, quay), jarnbreytarpallur (platform, quay), atløgubryggja (platform, quay). (various references) | |
Farsi | محکم مهارکردن , لنگرگاه ساحل رودخانه بااسکله , جتی , اسکله (Pier, Quay, Waterfront), بارانداز (Dock). (various references) | |
Finnish | laituri (burn one's boats, jetty, pier, platform, quay, wharf landing-stage). (various references) | |
French | quai. (various references) | |
Frisian | kaai (key, platform, quay, wrench). (various references) | |
German | Kai (embankment, pier, platform, quay, quayside, waterfront). (various references) | |
Greek | αποβάθρα (dock, jetty, landing stage, levee, pier, platform, quay). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מזח (breakwater, jetty, mole, pier, quay, slip). (various references) | |
Hungarian | rakpart (bund, embankment, landing, pier, quay). (various references) | |
Icelandic | bryggja (platform, quay). (various references) | |
Indonesian | dermaga (jetty, pier, quay). (various references) | |
Italian | pontile (gangway, landing stage, pier), piattaforma (dais, Dolly, faceplate, platform, quay, shelf), molo (breakwater, jetty, mole, pier, quay). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 桟橋 (bridge, jetty, pier), 岸壁 (breakwater, steep cliff). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | がんぺき (breakwater, steep cliff, wall of rock), がんとう (shore, sugar content, the whole island, top of a massive rock), さんきょう (bridge, gap, gorge, jetty, pier, ravine, Shinto and Buddhism and Confucianism), さんばし (bridge, jetty, pier), ふなつきば (harbour, landing place), はとば (jetty, landing-stage, quay). (various references) | |
Korean | 선창 (Dock, Wharfs). (various references) | |
Manx | keiy (jetty, quay, quayside). (various references) | |
Maori | waapu. (various references) | |
Norwegian | perrong (platform, quay, railway platform), kai (platform, quay). (various references) | |
Papiamen | waf (platform, quay). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | arfwhay.(various references) | |
Polish | peron (platform, quay). (various references) | |
Portuguese | cais (bund, pier, platform, quay, quayside, wharfage), plataforma (dais, deck, footboard, gallery, platform, quay, rampart, stand, terrace). (various references) | |
Romanian | peron (perron, platform, quay), depozita mãrfuri pe chei, debarcader (landing place, levee, quay), chei (embankment, fountain, gap, gorge, jetty, levee, mole, opening, pier, quay), antrepozit (depot, go down, repository, storehouse, warehouse), ancora un vas la chei. (various references) | |
Russian | пристань (bunder, dock, landing stage, landing-stage, pier, quayside, wharves), причал (berth, moorage, pier). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | pristanište (dock, pier, slip, terminal), kej (jetty, quay). (various references) | |
Spanish | andén (platform, quay, shoulder), muelle (bouncy, dock, jetty, luxurious, mole, pier, quay, quayside, soft, spring, springy). (various references) | |
Sranan | syoro (bank, border, edge, platform, quay, shore). (various references) | |
Swedish | lastkaj (dock), kaj (dock, embankment, jetty, levee, pier, platform, quay, whar). (various references) | |
Turkish | rıhtım (dock, jetty, pier, quay, quayside), iskeleye boşaltmak, iskeleye bağlamak, iskele (dockage, gangboard, gangway, landing, landing place, landing stage, larboard, pier, port, quay, scaffold, scaffolding, seaport, stage, staging, stopping place). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | верф (dock, dockyard, doctor, shipyard), набережна (banking, bay, bund, quay), причалювати (accost, land), причал (quay). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "wharf": wharfage, wharfages, wharfed, wharfing, wharfinger, wharfingers, wharfmaster, wharfmasters, wharfs. (additional references) | |
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"Wharf" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Hafr, harf, Harff, hwar, Khafra, wahr, warf, warhf, whaf, whaif, whar, whard, whare, wharft, whart, wherof, whert, wherve, whirb, whoar, whvr. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "wharf" (pronounced wô"rf or hwô"rf) |
| 4 | w ô" r f | dwarf. |
| 3 | -ô" r f | morph. |
| 4 | -w ô" r f | dwarf. |
| 3 | -ô" r f | morph. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-f-h-r-w" | |
-2 letters: arf, far, haw, rah, raw, war, wha. | |
-3 letters: ah, ar, aw, fa, ha. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-f-h-r-w" | |
+1 letter: wharfs. | |
+2 letters: wharfed. | |
+3 letters: crawfish, dwarfish, wharfage, wharfing, wrathful. | |
+4 letters: flowchart, wharfages. | |
+5 letters: crawfished, crawfishes, dwarfishly, flowcharts, foreshadow, freshwater, wharfinger, witchcraft, wrathfully. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Usage Frequency 11. Names: Company Usage 12. Expressions | 13. Expressions: Internet 14. Translations: Modern 15. Abbreviations 16. Acronyms | 17. Derivations 18. Rhymes 19. Anagrams 20. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
