'd
/d//d/
'd is the contraction of had.
'd is the contraction of would.
'd is the contraction of did.
Meaning of had
Verb
had
- Used to form the past perfect tense, expressing an action that took place prior to a reference point that is itself in the past.
- I felt sure that I had seen him before.
- As past subjunctive: would have.
- Had I not known you were coming this evening, I'd have left at midday.
Meaning of would
Verb
would
- Used to form the "anterior future", or "future in the past", indicating a futurity relative to a past time.
- On my first day at University, I met the woman who would become my wife.
- Used to, did repeatedly, habitually; indicates an action that happened several times in the past (cannot describe continuous states, as in I used to live in London)
- When we were younger, we would cycle out to the beach most summer Sundays.
- Synonyms:
- used to
- Was or were determined to; indicating someone's insistence upon doing something.
- I asked her to stay in with me, but she would go out.
- Wanted to.
- And thenne at laste a-nother sayd that he wolde have eyren. Then the good wyf sayd that she understod hym wel.1490, William Caxton, Prologue to Eneydos
- Used with ellipsis of the infinitive verb, or postponement to a relative clause, in various senses.
- At which time he told me, he would to London that week, and so to Oxford.1694, John Strype, Memorials of The Most Reverend Father in God, Thomas Cranmer, Appendix page 68
- Wished, desired (something).
Synonyms of 'd
Origin of 'd
Contraction of would or had.
Phrases with 'd
Questions about 'd
- What is 'd the contraction of?
- 'd is the contraction of had.
- How do you pronounce 'd?
- 'd is pronounced /d/.
Words near 'd in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: 'd (page history and authors); had (page history and authors); would (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-'d.wav.
Cite this entry: “'d.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/%27d. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
