would

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   Past tense of will; usually followed by a bare infinitive.

   On my first day at University, I met the woman who would become my wife.

2. 2
   verb

   A modal verb, the subjunctive of will; usually followed by a bare infinitive.

   If I won the lottery, I would give half the money to charity.

3. 3
   noun

   Something that would happen, or would be the case, under different circumstances; a potentiality.

   When the golf ball is there, the whole self-interference package — the hopes, worries, and fears; the thoughts on how-to and how-not-to; the woulds, the coulds, and the shoulds — is there too.

4. 4
   intj

   Ellipsis of I would, used to denote that the speaker finds another person sexually attractive.

Etymology

From Old English wolde, past tense of willan, predecessor of will. The loss of /l/ in this word is probably due to weak stress, as in should and could (though in the latter, the /l/ was due to the analogy of the former two).