Definitions for would
wʊd; unstressed wədwould

Wiktionary(1.67 / 3 votes)Rate this definition:

1. would(Verb)

   As a past-tense form of will.

2. would(Verb)

   As a modal verb.

Webster Dictionary(4.00 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Would

   of Will

   Etymology: [OE. & AS. wolde. See Will, v. t.]

2. Would(verb)

   commonly used as an auxiliary verb, either in the past tense or in the conditional or optative present. See 2d & 3d Will

   Etymology: [OE. & AS. wolde. See Will, v. t.]

3. Would(noun)

   see 2d Weld

   Etymology: [OE. & AS. wolde. See Will, v. t.]

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(5.00 / 3 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Would

   wood, pa.t. of will.—adj. Would′-be, aspiring, trying, or merely professing to be.—n. a vain pretender. [A.S. wolde, pa.t. of willan.]

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'would' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #43

2. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'would' in Written Corpus Frequency: #55

3. Verbs Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'would' in Verbs Frequency: #6

How to pronounce would?

1. Alex

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

How to say would in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of would in Chaldean Numerology is: 8

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of would in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3

Examples of would in a Sentence

1. Philip Goulder:

   Overall we are bringing down the ability of HIV to cause AIDS so quickly, but it would be overstating it to say HIV has lost its potency -- it's still a virus you wouldn't want to have.

2. Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt, p. 205:

   Even he, to whom most things that most people would think were pretty smart were pretty dumb, thought it was pretty smart.

3. Michael Fallon:

   Before taking any military action in Libya, we would seek an invitation from the new Libyan Government.

4. Paul Azinger:

   I think Steve would be real wise not to say anything and let the players sort that out themselves, if you're talking about something about happened in 2018, you may be talking to somebody who's not going to make the team.

5. Jeb Bush:

   I would have, and so would have Hillary Clinton, just to remind everybody, and so would almost everybody that was confronted with the intelligence they got.

Images & Illustrations of would

Popularity rank by frequency of use