were
/wə(ɹ)/
were verb: simple subjunctive of be. Also the second-person singular simple past indicative of be.
Verb
were
- simple subjunctive of be
- I wish that it were Sunday.
- I wish that I were with you.
Noun
were (plural weres)
- The collective name for any kind of person that changes into another form under certain conditions, including the werewolf.
Also used as
were is also the second-person singular simple past indicative of be.
were is also the plural simple past indicative of be.
were is also the first/third-person singular simple past indicative of be.
were is also the alternative form of wer.
Examples of were in a sentence
- If you were to move your chair a little, we'd all fit.
- I'd say you were about 50 years old right now.
- A long shot, it may be, at immortality, but longer ones have hit; or Guido Fawkes, William Tell, and Samuel Pepys were forgotten now.1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries:
- Maccabi would have been out of contention were it not for Stoke's profligacy, but their fortune eventually ran out as the visitors opened the scoring.2011 November 3, David Ornstein, “Macc Tel-Aviv 1 - 2 Stoke”, in BBC Sport:
Synonyms of were
Forms of were
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| alternative form | ware |
| alternative form (obsolete) | weare |
| Noun | |
| plural | weres |
Origin of were
Inherited from Middle English were, weren, from Old English wǣre, wǣron, wǣren, from Proto-West Germanic *wāʀun, *wāʀīn, from Proto-Germanic *wēzun, *wēzīn, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes-. More at was.
Inherited from Middle English were, wer, see wer.
Back-formation from werewolf and other terms in were-, from the same source as English wer, were (“man”) (above).
Phrases with were
- were gild
- were with
- were wolf
- as it were
- there were
- were gilds
- as you were
- were wolves
- if I were you
- were it not for
- you were saying
- if it were not for
23 more phrasesFewer phrases
- those were the days
- if ever there were one
- if there ever were one
- if ever there were some
- were you born in a tent
- hunt where the ducks were
- hunts where the ducks were
- hunted where the ducks were
- like there were no tomorrow
- met someone where they were
- as if there were no tomorrow
- hunting where the ducks were
- fingers were made before forks
- hit someone when they were down
- knew where the bodies were buried
- kicked someone when they were down
- known where the bodies were buried
- struck someone when they were down
- if wishes were horses, beggars might ride
- if wishes were horses, beggars would ride
- I wouldn't piss on someone if they were on fire
- you'd complain if you were hung with a new rope
- if ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas
Words that rhyme with were
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- per
- purr
- birr
- bur
- cellular
- concur
- defer
- entrepreneur
- incur
- infer
- occur
- prefer
- whirr
- aver
- brr
- cur
- deter
- diaperfur
- err
- fir
- myrrh
- aberr
- astir
- bestir
- chauffeur
- chur
- churr
- curmur
- deburr
- farceur
- flurr
- force majeure
- froideur
- grr
- her
- hurr
- inter
- knur
- masseur
- profer
- shirr
- voyeur
- xir
- agripreneur
- artpreneur
- auteur
- Big Sur
- bras d'honneur
Questions about were
- What does were mean?
- Were means simple subjunctive of be.
- How do you use were in a sentence?
- If you were to move your chair a little, we'd all fit.
- What part of speech is were?
- Were can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce were?
- Were is pronounced /wə(ɹ)/.
Words near were in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: were (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)-Back ache-were.wav, en-us-were.ogg.
Cite this entry: “were.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/were. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.