was

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was^¹

/wəz/ UK
/wɒz/ UK
/wʌz/ UK
/wəz/ US
/wʌz/ US
/wɑz/ US
/wʌz/ Canada
[wəz] Canada
/wɒz/ Canada, dialectal
[wɔ(ː)z] Canada, dialectal
/wɔz/ Australia
/wɒz/ New Zealand
/wʌz/ New Zealand
/wɑz/ Ireland
/wæz/ Early Modern
/wæs/ Early Modern

Rhymes with -ɒz, -ʌz

Where it comes from

From Middle English was, from Old English wæs, from Proto-Germanic *was, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂we-h₂wós-e from *h₂wes- (“to reside”), whence also vestal.

See also Scots was, West Frisian was (dated, wie is generally preferred today), Dutch was, Low German was, German war, Swedish var); also Kamkata-viri vos-, Sanskrit उवास (uvā́sa).

The paradigm of “to be” has been since the time of Proto-Germanic a synthesis of three originally distinct verb stems. The infinitive form be and its derived forms been and being are from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- (“to become”). The present-tense indicative forms am, is, and are are both derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- (“to be”). Lastly, the past forms starting with w- such as was and were are from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes- (“to reside”).

verb wus · wuz

first person, indicative, past, singular first-person singular simple past indicative of be I was castigated and scorned.
indicative, past, singular, third person third-person singular simple past indicative of be It was a really humongous slice of cake.
colloquial Used in phrases with existential there when the semantic subject is (usually third-person) plural. There was three of them there.
colloquial, indicative, nonstandard, past, second person, singular second-person singular simple past indicative of be; were. You was pleased to cast a favourable eye upon me.
colloquial, first person, indicative, nonstandard, past, plural first-person plural simple past indicative of be; were. “What happened here, Hadley?” the chief asked. “We was robbed, damn it, we was robbed.”
colloquial, indicative, nonstandard, past, plural, third person third-person plural simple past indicative of be; were. And in them days, everything was mighty satisfactory. The critters, they was closer to the folks, and the folks, they was closer to the critters.

Was^²

proper noun Wases

A surname.

WAs^³

noun

plural plural of WA

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: wa, pls, heh, layla, tha, happened, stood, were, remained, existed, occurred, prevailed, lived, endured, persisted, lasted

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MLA

"was." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/was. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

was. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/was

Chicago

"was." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/was.

BibTeX

@misc{was_2026,
  title = {was},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/was},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}

was