Definitions for were
wɜr; unstressed wərwere

WiktionaryRate this definition:3.0 / 4 votes

1. werecontraction

   we are.

2. Etymology: wære.

Samuel Johnson's DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Wereof the verb to be.

   To give our sister to one uncircumcised, were a reproach unto us. Gen. xxxiv. 14.

   In infusions in things that are of too high a spirit, you were better pour off the first infusion, and use the latter. Francis Bacon.

   Henry divided, as it were,
   The person of himself into four parts. Samuel Daniel, Civil War.

   As though there were any feriation in nature, or justitium ’s imaginable in professions, this season is termed the physicians vacation. Thomas Browne, Vulgar Errours.

   He had been well assur’d that art
   And conduct were of war the better part. Dryden.

2. Werenoun

   A dam. See Wear.

   O river! let thy bed be turned from fine gravel to weeds and mud; let some unjust niggards make weres to spoil thy beauty. Philip Sidney.

WikipediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. WERE

   WERE (1490 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to serve Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and carrying a talk radio format known as "NewsTalk 1490". Owned by Urban One, the station serves the Greater Cleveland region. WERE is one of two Cleveland-area stations that carries The Rickey Smiley Morning Show and also features syndicated personalities Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Since 2008, an emphasis has been placed on brokered programming.Built and launched in 1947 as WSRS, a suburban station focused on Cleveland Heights proper, this station became the second in the Cleveland market to use the WJMO call sign in 1959. During this period, WJMO carried a rhythm and blues/soul music format continuously from 1959 to 1999, reputedly longer than any other such station in the United States, and was one of the first major-market radio stations to have an African-American serve as their general manager. At the same time, a number of legal issues surrounding owner United Broadcasting, repeated technical violations committed, strained relations between station management and the station's staff and audience, and a controversial ownership transfer in 1992 attracted criticism and scrutiny by the public, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), at one point putting the station's broadcast license in question. A series of ownership buyouts in the late 1990s saw the station adopt an urban gospel format, then come under control of Radio One (now Urban One); a 2007 format swap resulted in 1490 AM picking up the format and calls of WERE from 1300 AM, which it has maintained to the present day. WERE's studios are located along the Euclid Avenue Corridor on Cleveland's east side, while the station transmitter resides near University Circle, adjacent to the Case Western Reserve University campus. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WERE's programming is available online and simulcast on the HD digital subchannel of co-owned WZAK.

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. were

   The word "were" is a past tense form of the verb "to be." It is used to indicate a continuous state or action that occurred in the past.

Webster DictionaryRate this definition:3.6 / 7 votes

1. Were

   to wear. See 3d Wear

2. Werenoun

   a weir. See Weir

3. Wereverb

   to guard; to protect

4. Were

   the imperfect indicative plural, and imperfect subjunctive singular and plural, of the verb be. See Be

5. Werenoun

   a man

6. Werenoun

   a fine for slaying a man; the money value set upon a man's life; weregild

7. Etymology: [AS. wre (thou) wast, wron (we, you, they) were, wre imp. subj. See Was.]

WikidataRate this definition:2.7 / 3 votes

1. Were

   Were and wer are archaic terms for adult male humans and were often used for alliteration with wife as "were and wife" in Germanic-speaking cultures. In folklore and fantasy fiction, were- is often used as a prefix applied to an animal name to indicate a type of lycanthropy and/or shapeshifter. Hyphenation used to be mandatory but is now commonly dropped, as in werecat and wererat. This usage can be seen as a back-formation from werewolf, as there is no equivalent wifewolf. Gothic has a word translating kosmos, not derived from the same stem: faírhvus, used by Ulfilas in alternation with manasêþs. The corresponding West Germanic term is werold "world", literally wer "man" + ald "age". Gothic faírhvus is cognate to Old High German fërah, Old English feorh, terms expressing "lifetime". The word has cognates in various other languages, for example, the words vir and fear are the Latin and Gaelic for a male human.

Chambers 20th Century DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Were

   wer, v.i. the pl. of was, used as pa.t. of be. [A.S. wǽre; Ger. war, Ice. vera, to be. Cf. Was.]

Surnames Frequency by Census RecordsRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. WERE

   According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Were is ranked #143149 in terms of the most common surnames in America.
   
   The Were surname appeared 116 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Were.
   
   72.4% or 84 total occurrences were Black.
   20.6% or 24 total occurrences were White.

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'were' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #35

2. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'were' in Written Corpus Frequency: #66

Anagrams for were »

1. ewer

2. rewe

3. weer

How to pronounce were?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say were in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of were in Chaldean Numerology is: 9

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of were in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6

Examples of were in a Sentence

1. Athena Nair:

   It was just something everyone I knew dealt with, they were all dealing with body shame, disordered eating and fatphobia. I didn't have a language for these things at the time, but I knew they were affecting so many people.

2. Tobias Levkovich:

   It's a little bit optimistic to believe that you can define the moves in stocks purely on the basis on stock buyback activity, it's too neat a package to tie up and tie a little bow around of and say 'perfect.' I wish it were that easy.

3. Kris Kobach:

   We were then instructed by the same city officials that we were good to proceed with construction over the holiday weekend and that we would not have any issues being shut down.

4. Bharat Mistry:

   We were absolutely distraught, we pleaded and pleaded with them not to do it, but their mind was made up. That tree was coming down.

5. Von Keussler:

   The biggest surprise for me was to see how deep the tunnel was and also how narrow and long it was. It must have been so much work to dig, the students who did that, including my grandfather, were really selfless ... they did not actually flee themselves, they just dug a tunnel into the East to help other people that they didn't even know to flee.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

References

1. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Were
2. ^ Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
   https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/views/search.php?term=were
3. ^ Wikipedia
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Were
4. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com
5. ^ Webster Dictionary
   https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/were
6. ^ Wikidata
   https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?search=were
7. ^ Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
   https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37683/37683-h/37683-h.htm#:~:text=were
8. ^ Surnames Frequency by Census Records
   https://www.census.gov/topics/population/genealogy/data/2010_surnames.html