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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

beer.

An alcoholic drink fermented from starch material, commonly barley malt; often with hops or some other substance (like gruit) to impart a bitter flavor.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈbɪə̯/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/ˈbɪː/British, Southern, Standard/ˈbɪjə/British, Southern, Standard/ˈbɪə/Australia
  1. An alcoholic drink fermented from starch material, commonly barley malt; often with hops or some other substance (like gruit) to impart a bitter flavor.

    uncountable
    Beer is brewed all over the world.
  2. A fermented extract of the roots and other parts of various plants, as spruce, ginger, sassafras, etc.

    uncountable
  3. A solution produced by steeping plant materials in water or another fluid.

    uncountable
  4. A glass, bottle, or can of any of the above beverages.

    countable
    I bought a few beers from the shop for the party.
    Can I buy you a beer?
  5. A variety of the above beverages.

    countable
    Pilsner is one of the most commonly served beers in Europe.
    I haven't tried this beer before.
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *beuzą Proto-West Germanic *beuʀ Old English bēor Middle English ber English beer From Middle English ber, bere, from Old English bēor (“beer”) (Oxford OED notes: "rare, except in poetry"), from Proto-West Germanic *beuʀ, from Proto-Germanic *beuzą (“beer”) (putatively from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewsóm), meaning “brewer's yeast”. However, also see the "beer" entry on EtymOnline (q.v.), which links a connection to monastic Vulgar Latin *biber (“a drink, beverage”), from Latin bibere (“to drink”). Samuel Johnson in his famous 18th-century A Dictionary of the English Language guessed it was from (unattested) Welsh *bîr; he distinguished it in his time from ale — the ancient usual word — by beer being older-aged and/or smaller. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Bjoor (“beer”), West Frisian bier (“beer”), Dutch bier (“beer”), German Low German Beer (“beer”), German Bier (“beer”), dialectal Swedish bjor, bör (“beer”), Norwegian Nynorsk bjor (“beer”), Faroese bjór (“beer”), Icelandic bjór (“beer”).

verb/ˈbɪə̯/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/ˈbɪː/British, Southern, Standard/ˈbɪjə/British, Southern, Standard/ˈbɪə/Australia
  1. To give beer to (someone).

    informal · transitive
  2. To drink beer.

    informal · intransitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *beuzą Proto-West Germanic *beuʀ Old English bēor Middle English ber English beer From Middle English ber, bere, from Old English bēor (“beer”) (Oxford OED notes: "rare, except in poetry"), from Proto-West Germanic *beuʀ, from Proto-Germanic *beuzą (“beer”) (putatively from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewsóm), meaning “brewer's yeast”. However, also see the "beer" entry on EtymOnline (q.v.), which links a connection to monastic Vulgar Latin *biber (“a drink, beverage”), from Latin bibere (“to drink”). Samuel Johnson in his famous 18th-century A Dictionary of the English Language guessed it was from (unattested) Welsh *bîr; he distinguished it in his time from ale — the ancient usual word — by beer being older-aged and/or smaller. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Bjoor (“beer”), West Frisian bier (“beer”), Dutch bier (“beer”), German Low German Beer (“beer”), German Bier (“beer”), dialectal Swedish bjor, bör (“beer”), Norwegian Nynorsk bjor (“beer”), Faroese bjór (“beer”), Icelandic bjór (“beer”).

noun/ˈbi.ɚ/General-American/ˈbiː.ə/Received-Pronunciation
  1. One who is or exists.

    nonstandard
Where this word comes from

From Middle English beere, equivalent to be + -er.

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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.