were.
second-person singular simple past indicative of be
Meaning & usage
second-person singular simple past indicative of be
John, you were the only person to see him.
plural simple past indicative of be
We were about to leave.
Mary and John, you were right.
simple subjunctive of be
I wish that it were Sunday.
I wish that I were with you.
first/third-person singular simple past indicative of be.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes-der. Proto-Germanic *wēzīn Proto-West Germanic *wāʀīn Old English wǣre Old English wǣron Old English wǣren Middle English were English 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.
The collective name for any kind of person that changes into another form under certain conditions, including the werewolf.
Where this word comes from
Back-formation from werewolf and other terms in were-, from the same source as English wer, were (“man”) (above).
Alternative form of wer (“man; wergeld”).
Where this word comes from
Inherited from Middle English were, wer, see wer.
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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.