Word.ws English Dictionary

never-was

never-was noun: one who has never achieved success or popularity.

Noun

never-was (plural never-weres)

  1. (derogatory, informal) One who has never achieved success or popularity.
    • They're saying Sonny Hayes isn't a has-been. He's a never-was.2025, Ehren Kruger, F1: The Movie, spoken by Kate McKenna (Kerry Condon)

Synonyms of never-was

Forms of never-was

pluralnever-weres
alternative formneverwas
alternative formnever was

Questions about never-was

What does never-was mean?
Never-was means one who has never achieved success or popularity.
What part of speech is never-was?
Never-was is a noun.
What is the plural of never-was?
The plural of never-was is never-weres.

Words near never-was in the dictionary

  1. never-smokers
  2. never-sweat
  3. never-sweats
  4. Never-Trumper
  5. Never-Trumpers
  6. never-was
  7. never-was'er
  8. never-was'ers
  9. never-was-er
  10. never-was-ers
  11. never-waser

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: never-was (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.

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Cite this entry: “never-was.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/never-was. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.