were

Inherited from Middle English were, weren, from Old English wǣre, wǣron, wǣren, from Proto-West Germanic *wāʀīn, from Proto-Germanic *wēzun, *wēzīn, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes-. More at was.

• ware (old eye dialect)
• weare (obsolete)

stressed

• enPR: wûr:
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /wɜː/

    • Audio (London):

      (file)

  • (US) IPA^(key): /wɝ/

    • Audio (US):

      (file)

  • (Scotland) IPA^(key): /wɛr/
  • (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /wøː/
  • (Lancashire, fair–fur merger) IPA^(key): /wɜː(ɹ)/
• enPR: wâr:
  • (Liverpool, fair–fur merger) IPA^(key): /weː/
  • (Humberside, Teesside, fair–fur merger) IPA^(key): /wɛː/
• (Ireland, also) enPR: wär, IPA^(key): /wɑːɹ/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)
• Homophones: whirr (wine–whine merger, fern–fir–fur merger), ware (fair–fur merger), where (fair–fur merger, wine–whine merger)

unstressed

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: wər, IPA^(key): /wə(ɹ)/
• (US) enPR: wər, IPA^(key): /wɚ/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Homophone: we're

were

1. second-person singular simple past indicative of be

   John, you were the only person to see him.

2. plural simple past indicative of be

   We were about to leave.

   Mary and John, you were right.

   They were a fine group.

   They were to be the best of friends from that day on.

4. simple subjunctive of be

   I wish that it were Sunday.

   I wish that I were with you.

   If you were to move your chair a little, we'd all fit.

   • with “if” omitted, put first in an “if” clause:

     Were it simply that she wore a hat, I would not be upset at all. (= If it were simply...)

     Were father a king, we would have war. (= If father were a king,...)

   • 2011 November 3, David Ornstein, “Macc Tel-Aviv 1 - 2 Stoke”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     Maccabi would have been out of contention were it not for Stoke's profligacy, but their fortune eventually ran out as the visitors opened the scoring.

5. (MLE, Northern England, Ireland) first/third-person singular simple past indicative of be.

• (second-person singular past indicative, archaic) wast (used with “thou”)
• (second-person singular imperfect subjunctive, archaic) wert (used with “thou”)

Inherited from Middle English were, wer, see wer.

were (plural weres)

1. Alternative form of wer (“man; wergeld”).
   • 1799-1805, Sharon Turner, History of the Anglo-Saxons

     Every man was valued at a certain sum, which was called his were.

   • 1867, John Lingard, T. Young, Introduction to English History [...] arranged [...] by T. Young, page 19:

     If by that he failed to pay or give security for the were, or fine, at which murder was legally rated; he might be put to death by the relatives of the murdered man.

   • 1908, Frederic Jesup Stimson, The Law of the Federal and State Constitutions of the United States, page 13:

     Written statutes busied themselves only with the amount of the were, or fine, or (for the first century after the Conquest) with the method of procedure.

   • 2004, James Fitzjames Stephen, A General View of the Criminal Law of England, →ISBN, pages 12–13:

     The consequence of conviction was, the payment to the person injured, of a were, or penalty, proportioned to the offencel but though this was the ordinary course, the recovery of the were was not the only object of the proceedings. "The were," says Reeve, "in cases of homicide, and the fines that were paid in cases of theft of various kinds, were only to redeem the offender from the proper punishment of the law, which was death, and that was reddemable, not only by paying money, but by undergoing some personal pains; hence it is that we hear a great variety of corporal punishments..."...

Back-formation from werewolf and other terms in were-, from the same source as English wer, were (“man”) (above).

were (plural weres)

1. (fandom slang) The collective name for any kind of person that changes into another form under certain conditions, including the werewolf.

• Ewer, ewer, ewre, rewe, weer

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eːrə

were

1. (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of weren

• weer

were

1. garden

were (wereca)

1. to garden, to weed (wereca specifically)

Inherited from Proto-Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian *waiʀ, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *wahiʀ.

were

1. water (clear liquid H₂O)

• Cornelis L. Voorhoeve, Languages of Irian Jaya Checklist (1975, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics)

were

1. water

• Aone van Engelenhoven, The position of Makuva among the Austronesian languages of Southwest Maluku and East Timor, in Austronesian historical linguistics and culture history: a festschrift, Pacific linguistics 601 (2009)

Inherited from Old English wǣre (second-person singular indicative and subjunctive past of wesan).

• weer, weere, wer, wære, ware

• IPA^(key): /ˈwɛːr(ə)/, /ˈwɛr(ə)/

were

1. inflection of been:
   1. second-person singular indicative past
   2. singular subjunctive past

• English: were (dialectal war, ware)
• Scots: war, waar, ware, waur, wur, wir
• Yola: war, ware

From weren.

• IPA^(key): /ˈwɛːr(ə)/

were (uncountable)

1. wearing

• English: wear
• Yola: were, wer

• “wēre, n.(4).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

were

1. alternative form of weren

were

1. alternative form of werre (“war”)

were

1. alternative form of werre (“worse”)

were

1. alternative form of werre (“worse”)

From Proto-Bantu *ìbéèdè.

were class 5 (plural mawere)

1. breast

were

1. second-person singular imperative of hatin

were

1. dative singular of wer

Derived from Proto-Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian *waiʀ, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *wahiʀ.

were

1. water (clear liquid H₂O)

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

were ?

1. smell, scent, odor

were

1. day

• Roger Blench, The Toro language of Central Nigeria and its affinities (2012)

Derived from Proto-Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian *waiʀ, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *wahiʀ.

were

1. water (clear liquid H₂O)

• wer

Inherited from Middle English were.

• IPA^(key): /wɛːr/, /wɛr/

were

1. wearing

• waare (“to wear”)

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 77

• ièrè, iwèrè

• IPA^(key): /wè.ɾè/

wèrè

1. insanity, madness, imbecile
2. (sometimes derogatory, offensive) mad person

   Synonyms: ayírí, asínwín, aṣiwèrè

• → Nigerian Pidgin: werey