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WELSH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

chwarae.

to play

7 characters2 syllables approx.Cymraeg language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈχwaraɨ̯/North-Wales, standard/ˈχwarɛ/North-Wales, colloquial/ˈχwara/North-Wales, colloquial/ˈχwa(ː)rai̯/South-Wales, standard

  1. to play

    not-mutable
    Mae’r plant yn chwarae tennis.

  2. to play, or perform with, a percussive instrument such as a drum. (Should not be used with any other type of instrument – see canu.)

    not-mutable
    Dw i'n chwarae'r drymiau.
Where this word comes from

From Middle Welsh chwarae, from Proto-Brythonic *gwarrɨɣ, *gwėrɨɣ, from Proto-Celtic *uɸorigeti (“to delay”), from *uɸo- (“sub-”) + *rigeti (“to bind”). Cognate with Breton c'hoari, Cornish gwari, Irish fuirigh (“to wait”), Manx fuirree (“to wait”), and Scottish Gaelic fuirich (“to stay”). VGK suggests Proto-Celtic *worigo-, related to Irish fuirech (*fo-rig), second element possibly related to *regeti (“to stretch, straighten”)).

noun/ˈχwaraɨ̯/North-Wales, standard/ˈχwarɛ/North-Wales, colloquial/ˈχwara/North-Wales, colloquial/ˈχwa(ː)rai̯/South-Wales, standard

  1. play, activity of playing

    masculine · not-mutable

  2. sport, game

    in-plural · masculine · not-mutable · often
Where this word comes from

From Middle Welsh chwarae, from Proto-Brythonic *gwarrɨɣ, *gwėrɨɣ, from Proto-Celtic *uɸorigeti (“to delay”), from *uɸo- (“sub-”) + *rigeti (“to bind”). Cognate with Breton c'hoari, Cornish gwari, Irish fuirigh (“to wait”), Manx fuirree (“to wait”), and Scottish Gaelic fuirich (“to stay”). VGK suggests Proto-Celtic *worigo-, related to Irish fuirech (*fo-rig), second element possibly related to *regeti (“to stretch, straighten”)).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.