Were

//wə(ɹ)// noun, verb, slang

noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Alternative form of wer (“man; wergeld”). alt-of, alternative

    "1799-1805, Sharon Turner, History of the Anglo-Saxons Every man was valued at a certain sum, which was called his were."

  2. 2
    The collective name for any kind of person that changes into another form under certain conditions, including the werewolf. slang
Verb
  1. 1
    second-person singular simple past indicative of be form-of, indicative, past, second-person, singular

    "John, you were the only person to see him."

  2. 2
    plural simple past indicative of be form-of, indicative, past, plural

    "We were about to leave."

  3. 3
    simple subjunctive of be

    "I wish that it were Sunday."

  4. 4
    first/third-person singular simple past indicative of be. Ireland, Multicultural-London-English, Northern-England, first-person, form-of, indicative, past, singular, third-person

Synonyms

All synonyms
beedbirdblokecatchapcovey

Example

More examples

"Humans were never meant to live forever."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Inherited from Middle English were, weren, from Old English wǣre, wǣron, wǣren, from Proto-West Germanic *wāʀīn, from Proto-Germanic *wēzun, *wēzīn, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes-. More at was.

Etymology 2

Inherited from Middle English were, wer, see wer.

Etymology 3

Back-formation from werewolf and other terms in were-, from the same source as English wer, were (“man”) (above).

Related phrases

am are

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.