The spoken language thrives on small words that are not only highly frequent but also highly multifunctional. This chapter highlights ‘well’, easily the most widely researched multifunctional item in English. We report on its frequency in conversation, its positional and collocational preferences and explore its broad functional range comprising both syntactic and pragmatic functions, with a focus on its function as a marker of dispreferred responses. Widening the scope of attention beyond conversation, we highlight novel functions ‘well’ has recently developed in journalistic writing. Finally, the chapter outlines and discusses some implications for the English language classroom.