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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

ware.

Goods or a type of goods offered for sale or use.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈwɛə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈwɛɹ/Canada, General-American/ˈweː/Australia/ˈwɜː(ɹ)/
  1. Goods or a type of goods offered for sale or use.

    in-compounds · uncountable · usually
  2. See wares.

    in-plural · uncountable · usually
  3. Pottery or metal goods.

    uncountable · usually
  4. A style or genre of artifact.

    countable · usually
  5. Crockery.

    Ireland · uncountable · usually
Where this word comes from

From Middle English ware, from Old English waru, from Proto-West Germanic *waru, from Proto-Germanic *warō (“attention”) as in beware, in the sense of “an object of care, a valuable”, from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to watch, keep guard”), whence also ward. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Were (“an item for exchange, barter, or sale; ware”), Dutch waar (“goods offered for sale or use; ware”), German Ware (“ware”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk vare (“ware”), Faroese vøra (“ware”), Icelandic and Swedish vara (“ware”).

adj/ˈwɛə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈwɛɹ/Canada, General-American/ˈweː/Australia/ˈwɜː(ɹ)/
  1. Aware.

    poetic
Where this word comes from

From Middle English ware, war, from Old English wær, from Proto-West Germanic *war, from Proto-Germanic *waraz.

verb/ˈwɛə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈwɛɹ/Canada, General-American/ˈweː/Australia/ˈwɜː(ɹ)/
  1. To be ware or mindful of something.

    dialectal · obsolete
  2. To protect or guard (especially oneself); to be on guard, be wary.

    obsolete
    Ware thee.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English waren (“to be ware, be on guard, be mindful, protect, guard”), from Old English warian, from Proto-West Germanic *warōn, from Proto-Germanic *warōną. Cognate with Saterland Frisian woarje (“to guard”).

adj/ˈwɛə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈwɛɹ/Canada, General-American/ˈweː/Australia/ˈwɜː(ɹ)/
  1. Wary; cautious.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English waren (“to be ware, be on guard, be mindful, protect, guard”), from Old English warian, from Proto-West Germanic *warōn, from Proto-Germanic *warōną. Cognate with Saterland Frisian woarje (“to guard”).

noun/ˈwɛə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈwɛɹ/Canada, General-American/ˈweː/Australia/ˈwɜː(ɹ)/
  1. Seaweed; drift seaweed; seawrack.

    UK · dialectal · obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English wor (in sewor) from Old English wār (“seaweed”), ultimately related to Proto-Germanic *wīraz; compare wire. Cognate with Scots wair (“seaweed”), Dutch wier (“seaweed”), Middle Dutch wier (“seaweed”).

noun/ˈwɛə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈwɛɹ/Canada, General-American/ˈweː/Australia/ˈwɜː(ɹ)/
  1. Spring, springtime.

    Northern-England · Scotland
Where this word comes from

From Middle English ware, from Old Norse vár (“spring”), from Proto-Germanic *wazrą. Cognate with Icelandic vor (“spring”), Swedish vår (“spring”), Danish vår (“spring”), Scots ware, wair (“spring”).

verb/ˈwɛə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈwɛɹ/Canada, General-American/ˈweː/Australia/ˈwɜː(ɹ)/
  1. Old eye dialect spelling of were.

verb/ˈwɛə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈwɛɹ/Canada, General-American/ˈweː/Australia/ˈwɜː(ɹ)/
  1. Alternative form of wear (“to veer or bring (a sailing vessel) onto the other tack by bringing the wind around the stern”)

    alt-of · alternative
verb/ˈwɛə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈwɛɹ/Canada, General-American/ˈweː/Australia/ˈwɜː(ɹ)/
  1. simple past of wear

    form-of · obsolete · past
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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.