wary
/ˈwɛə.ɹi/US/ˈwɛɚ.i/
wary adjective: cautious of danger; carefully watching and guarding against deception, trickery, and dangers; suspiciously prudent.
Adjective
wary (comparative warier, superlative wariest)
- Cautious of danger; carefully watching and guarding against deception, trickery, and dangers; suspiciously prudent
- He is wary of dogs.
- Synonyms:
- circumspect, scrupulous, careful
- Characterized by caution; guarded; careful; on one's guard
- thrifty, provident
Verb
wary (third-person singular simple present waries, present participle warying, simple past and past participle waried)
wary meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
wary in Hindi
- cautious of danger; timorously or suspiciously prudent; circumspect; scrupulous
- सावधान sāvdhān, सतर्क satark
- characterized by caution; guarded; careful
- सावधान sāvdhān, सतर्क satark
wary in Marathi
- cautious of danger; timorously or suspiciously prudent; circumspect; scrupulous
- सावध sāvadh
wary in Urdu
- wary
- ساودھان sāvdhān
wary in Bengali
- wary, vigilant
- সাবধান śabodhan
More languagesFewer languages
- wary in Malayalam
- മുൻകരുതലുളള, ശ്രദ്ധയുളള, സംശയിക്കുന്ന
- wary in Kannada
- ಎಚ್ಚರಿಕೆಯುಳ್ಳ, ಹುಷಾರಾದ, ಜಾಗರೂಕವಾಗಿರಬೇಕಾದ, ಜಾಗ್ರತೆಯಿಂದ ಕೂಡಿದ
- wary in Assamese
- সাৱধান xawodhan
- wary in Malay
- hati-hati, waspada
- wary in Thai
- ระวัง rá-wang, ระมัดระวัง rá-mát-rá-wang, ระแวง rá-wɛɛng, ขี้ระแวง
Examples of wary in a sentence
- The smith's apprentice was still wary of manipulating the red-hot metal.
- The cybersafety course taught children to be wary of strangers online.
- She still bore the scars of a very acrimonious divorce, which made her wary of new commitments.
Synonyms of wary
Forms of wary
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | warier |
| superlative | wariest |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | waries |
| present participle | warying |
| past participle | waried |
| past | waried |
Origin of wary
From the adjective ware + -y.
From Middle English warien, from Old English wierġan (“to curse, do evil”), from Proto-West Germanic *wargijan, from Proto-Germanic *wargijaną (“to condemn, curse”), from Proto-Germanic *wargaz (“criminal”). Doublet of warry.
Words formed from wary
Words that rhyme with wary
Questions about wary
- What does wary mean?
- Wary means cautious of danger; carefully watching and guarding against deception, trickery, and dangers; suspiciously prudent.
- What is wary in Hindi?
- Wary in Hindi is सावधान (sāvdhān), सतर्क (satark). See Wary meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is wary?
- Wary can be an adjective or a verb.
- How do you pronounce wary?
- Wary is pronounced /ˈwɛə.ɹi/ (UK).
Words near wary in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: wary (page history and authors); ساودھان (Urdu) (page history and authors); সাবধান (Bengali) (page history and authors); wary (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); wary (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); সাৱধান (Assamese) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-wary.wav.
Cite this entry: “wary.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wary. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.