overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

would.

Past tense of will; usually followed by a bare infinitive.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/wəd//əd//(w)ʊ(l)d//wʊd/
  1. Past tense of will; usually followed by a bare infinitive. Used to form the "anterior future", or "future in the past", indicating a futurity relative to a past time.

    auxiliary
    On my first day at University, I met the woman who would become my wife.
    Hi! I thought I'd come over and introduce myself. My name’s Chema.
  2. Past tense of will; usually followed by a bare infinitive. Used to, did repeatedly, habitually; indicates an action that happened several times in the past (cannot describe continuous states, as in I used to live in London)

    auxiliary
  3. Past tense of will; usually followed by a bare infinitive. Was or were determined to; indicating someone's insistence upon doing something.

    auxiliary
  4. Past tense of will; usually followed by a bare infinitive. Wanted to.

    archaic · auxiliary
  5. Past tense of will; usually followed by a bare infinitive. Used with ellipsis of the infinitive verb, or postponement to a relative clause, in various senses.

    archaic · auxiliary
  6. Past tense of will; usually followed by a bare infinitive. Wished, desired (something).

    auxiliary · obsolete
  7. A modal verb, the subjunctive of will; usually followed by a bare infinitive. Used as the auxiliary of the simple conditional modality, indicating a state or action that is conditional on another.

    auxiliary
    If I won the lottery, I would give half the money to charity.
    I'd never do anything that went against my conscience.
  8. A modal verb, the subjunctive of will; usually followed by a bare infinitive. Without explicit condition, or with loose or vague implied condition, indicating a hypothetical or imagined state or action.

    auxiliary
    I would love to come and visit.
    Look at that yummy cake! I would eat that all up!
  9. A modal verb, the subjunctive of will; usually followed by a bare infinitive. Suggesting conditionality or potentiality in order to express a sense of politeness, tentativeness, indirectness, hesitancy, uncertainty, etc.

    auxiliary
    I would ask you all to sit down.
    I would imagine that they have already left.
  10. A modal verb, the subjunctive of will; usually followed by a bare infinitive. Used to express what the speaker would do in another person's situation, as a means of giving a suggestion or recommendation.

    auxiliary
  11. A modal verb, the subjunctive of will; usually followed by a bare infinitive. Used to express the speaker's belief or assumption.

    auxiliary
    She looked as if she would be sick.
    He's very security-conscious, so he would have remembered to lock the door.
  12. A modal verb, the subjunctive of will; usually followed by a bare infinitive. Could naturally be expected to (given the situation, the tendencies of someone's character etc.).

    auxiliary
    Sorry, officer, I wouldn't know anything about the crime, since I was nowhere near the scene.
  13. A modal verb, the subjunctive of will; usually followed by a bare infinitive. Used interrogatively to express a polite request; are (you) willing to …?

    auxiliary
    Would you pass the salt, please?
    Just reach me down that file, would you.
  14. A modal verb, the subjunctive of will; usually followed by a bare infinitive. Might wish (+ verb in past subjunctive); often used in the first person (with or without that) in the sense of "if only".

    archaic · auxiliary
  15. A modal verb, the subjunctive of will; usually followed by a bare infinitive. Might desire; wish (something).

    archaic · auxiliary
Where this word comes from

From Old English wolde, past tense of willan, predecessor of will. The loss of /l/ in this word is probably due to weak stress, as in should and could (though in the latter, the /l/ was due to the analogy of the former two).

noun/wəd//əd//(w)ʊ(l)d//wʊd/
  1. Something that would happen, or would be the case, under different circumstances; a potentiality.

Where this word comes from

From Old English wolde, past tense of willan, predecessor of will. The loss of /l/ in this word is probably due to weak stress, as in should and could (though in the latter, the /l/ was due to the analogy of the former two).

intj/wəd//əd//(w)ʊ(l)d//wʊd/
  1. Ellipsis of I would, used to denote that the speaker finds another person sexually attractive.

    abbreviation · alt-of · ellipsis · idiomatic · slang
Where this word comes from

From Old English wolde, past tense of willan, predecessor of will. The loss of /l/ in this word is probably due to weak stress, as in should and could (though in the latter, the /l/ was due to the analogy of the former two).

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

would has 5 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

would studiowould workshello, would

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

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.