was

A1 Topic:Grammar & Function Words

Also spelled wor

US /wəz/ UK /wɒz/ See IPA manual

Freq #23

Meanings

1

verb
Past tense of "be" used with I, he, she, or it.

It was a really hot day.
2

verb
Past tense of "be" used with I to describe a past state or action.

I was very tired after the long trip.

Verb forms

Verb forms are not available for this word yet.

Thesaurus

Word family

Derived forms wasbandwasbianwasrael

Related forms am are art be been beest being is wast were wertwoz

Appears in

Idioms (1)

See all

it's all Greek to me
Matching variant: It was Greek to me

I cannot understand it at all

Tongue twisters (1)

See all

Betty Botter
Betty Botter bought some butter. “But,” she said, “this butter’s bitter; If I put it in my batter, It will make my batter bitter; But a bit of better butter Will but make my batter better.” So she bought a bit of butter Better than the bitter butter, And made her bitter batter better. So it was better Betty Botter Bought a bit of better butter.

Compare the vowels in bit, better, batter and butter while keeping /b/ steady. Use your normal accent for the middle consonant of Betty, ...

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes- Proto-Germanic *was Old English wæs Middle English was English was 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 is from…

was Middle English wæs Old English *was Proto-Germanic *bʰuH- Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes- Proto-Indo-European

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Grammar & Function Words

External links

# was

**Type:** Word
**Level:** A1
**Part of speech:** verb
**IPA (US):** /wəz/
**IPA (UK):** /wɒz/
**Frequency rank:** 23

## Meanings
1. Past tense of "be" used with I, he, she, or it.
2. Past tense of "be" used with I to describe a past state or action.

## Examples
- It was a really hot day.
- I was very tired after the long trip.

## Derived Forms
- wasband
- wasbian
- wasrael

## Related Forms
- am
- are
- art
- be
- been
- beest
- being
- is
- wast
- were
- wert
- woz

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: was
- Root: wæs
- Root: *was
- Root: *bʰuH-
- Root: *h₁es-
- Root: *h₂wes-

## Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes- Proto-Germanic *was Old English wæs Middle English was English was 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 is from…

## AI Etymology
Was: The etymological chain runs Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes- -> Proto-Germanic *was -> Old English wæs -> Middle English was -> English was. 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. Important historical forms include Middle English was, Old English wæs, Proto-Germanic *was, Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH-, Proto-Indo-European *h₁es-, and Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes-.

## Topics
- Grammar & Function Words

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