Word.ws English Dictionary

never was

never was is the alternative form of never-was.

Meaning of never-was

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)

Questions about never was

What is never was the alternative form of?
Never was is the alternative form of never-was.

Words near never was in the dictionary

  1. never the twain shall meet
  2. never the wiser
  3. Never Trumper
  4. Never Trumpers
  5. never trust me
  6. never was
  7. never waste a crisis
  8. never you mind
  9. never've
  10. never-be
  11. never-been

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: never was (page history and authors); 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.