wasn't

English · Thesaurus

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

wasn't

/ˈwɒz.ənt/ UK
[ˈwɒz.n̩(ʔ)] UK
[ˈwɒn.(ʔ)] UK
/ˈwʌz.ənt/ US
[ˈwʌz.n̩(t)] US
[ˈwʌd.n̩(t)] colloquial, dialectal

Rhymes with (RP) -ɒzənt, (GA) -ʌzənt

Where it comes from

Contraction of was + not. By surface analysis, was + -n't.

verb wadn't · warn't · wudn't · wunt · wa'n't · wan't

abbreviation, auxiliary, contraction, in the negative Contraction of was + not. Yesterday, upon the stair / I met a man who wasn’t there / He wasn’t there again today / I wish, I wish he’d go away …

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: were not, hadn't, bloody, born, diddly, first, mak, make, overhear, overhearing, parenthesis, thing, did, was, no, what not

Talk about this word

Cite this

MLA

"wasn't." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/wasn't. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

wasn't. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/wasn't

Chicago

"wasn't." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/wasn't.

BibTeX

@misc{wasn_t_2026,
  title = {wasn't},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/wasn't},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}