<p>The present investigation systematically portrays the tailoring of the structural, morphological, optical, and ferromagnetic features of the pristine and Ytterbium (Yb -1%, 3%, and 5%) doped PbWO₄ nanospindles prepared by chemical precipitation method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) reveals the tetragonal structure of pure and Yb-doped PbWO₄ compounds. A monotonic increase in lattice strain is identified by the Williamson and Hall (W–H) method, which affirms the correlation between crystallite size (54 to 94&#xa0;nm) and lattice strain with the Yb³⁺ dopant level. FTIR spectra show the presence of M–O vibrations (Pb–O, W–O) in the samples. The Raman modes confirm the structural purity of the nanospindles. Electron microscope pictures show that both the pure and Yb-doped PbWO₄ samples have a clear spindle-like shapes. The elemental analysis verified the uniform distribution of Yb ions throughout the compounds. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is used to identify the oxidation states (Pb²⁺, W⁶⁺, and O²⁻) and the presence of oxygen vacancies in the compounds. The optical characteristics and the change in the band gap with the addition of Yb ions are examined. As the Yb concentration increases, the optical energy band gaps (3.88&#xa0;eV to 3.82&#xa0;eV) are narrowed may attributed to the variation in the crystallite size. The presence of paramagnetic or F centres in the pure and Yb-doped compounds has been verified by EPR analyses. Magnetization studies show that pure compounds are paramagnetic, but all the Yb-doped PbWO₄ are ferromagnetic. Hence, the transition from para to ferromagnetism concerning the dopant concentration (Yb³⁺) in the PbWO₄ system may be explained based on morphology, dopants, and vacancies present in the nanostructures. Thus, the prepared materials could be an effective candidate for possible magneto-optical device-based applications. </p>