See were in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "be",
"tags": [
"canonical"
]
},
{
"form": "am, is, are",
"tags": [
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "was, were",
"tags": [
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "been",
"tags": [
"past",
"participle"
]
},
{
"form": "being",
"tags": [
"present",
"participle"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "be",
"2": "am",
"3": "is",
"4": "are",
"5": "was",
"6": "were",
"7": "been",
"8": "being"
},
"expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
"name": "verb3"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"text": "Only you were doing it right."
}
],
"glosses": [
"A form of the verb be used about the person you are talking to."
],
"id": "simple-were-en-verb-UI8EdAku",
"raw_tags": [
"auxiliary",
"linking"
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"text": "We were going home."
},
{
"text": "You all were staying late."
},
{
"text": "They were all playing in the band."
}
],
"glosses": [
"A form of the verb be used about more than one person."
],
"id": "simple-were-en-verb-8NREpQ9Z",
"raw_tags": [
"auxiliary",
"linking"
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"text": "If I were rich, I would retire."
}
],
"glosses": [
"A form of the verb be used with the word if."
],
"id": "simple-were-en-verb-7AxlpfNm",
"raw_tags": [
"auxiliary",
"linking"
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"text": "I wish it were the weekend."
}
],
"glosses": [
"A form of the verb be used about things you wish for."
],
"id": "simple-were-en-verb-F8TJl1x~",
"raw_tags": [
"auxiliary",
"linking"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/wɜː(r)/",
"tags": [
"UK",
"stressed"
]
},
{
"sampa": "/w3:(r\\)/",
"tags": [
"UK",
"stressed"
]
},
{
"enpr": "wûr",
"tags": [
"stressed",
"US"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/wɝ/",
"tags": [
"stressed",
"US"
]
},
{
"sampa": "/w3`/",
"tags": [
"stressed",
"US"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/wə(r)/",
"tags": [
"unstressed",
"UK"
]
},
{
"sampa": "/w@(r\\)/",
"tags": [
"unstressed",
"UK"
]
},
{
"enpr": "wər",
"tags": [
"unstressed",
"US"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/wɚ/",
"tags": [
"unstressed",
"US"
]
},
{
"sampa": "/w@`/",
"tags": [
"unstressed",
"US"
]
},
{
"audio": "en-us-were.ogg",
"raw_tags": [
"Audio"
],
"tags": [
"unstressed",
"US"
]
}
],
"word": "were"
}
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "be",
"tags": [
"canonical"
]
},
{
"form": "am, is, are",
"tags": [
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "was, were",
"tags": [
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "been",
"tags": [
"past",
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]
},
{
"form": "being",
"tags": [
"present",
"participle"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
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"3": "is",
"4": "are",
"5": "was",
"6": "were",
"7": "been",
"8": "being"
},
"expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
"name": "verb3"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"Auxiliary verbs",
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],
"examples": [
{
"text": "Only you were doing it right."
}
],
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"A form of the verb be used about the person you are talking to."
],
"raw_tags": [
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]
},
{
"categories": [
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"Linking verbs"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "We were going home."
},
{
"text": "You all were staying late."
},
{
"text": "They were all playing in the band."
}
],
"glosses": [
"A form of the verb be used about more than one person."
],
"raw_tags": [
"auxiliary",
"linking"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"Auxiliary verbs",
"Linking verbs"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "If I were rich, I would retire."
}
],
"glosses": [
"A form of the verb be used with the word if."
],
"raw_tags": [
"auxiliary",
"linking"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"Auxiliary verbs",
"Linking verbs"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "I wish it were the weekend."
}
],
"glosses": [
"A form of the verb be used about things you wish for."
],
"raw_tags": [
"auxiliary",
"linking"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/wɜː(r)/",
"tags": [
"UK",
"stressed"
]
},
{
"sampa": "/w3:(r\\)/",
"tags": [
"UK",
"stressed"
]
},
{
"enpr": "wûr",
"tags": [
"stressed",
"US"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/wɝ/",
"tags": [
"stressed",
"US"
]
},
{
"sampa": "/w3`/",
"tags": [
"stressed",
"US"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/wə(r)/",
"tags": [
"unstressed",
"UK"
]
},
{
"sampa": "/w@(r\\)/",
"tags": [
"unstressed",
"UK"
]
},
{
"enpr": "wər",
"tags": [
"unstressed",
"US"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/wɚ/",
"tags": [
"unstressed",
"US"
]
},
{
"sampa": "/w@`/",
"tags": [
"unstressed",
"US"
]
},
{
"audio": "en-us-were.ogg",
"raw_tags": [
"Audio"
],
"tags": [
"unstressed",
"US"
]
}
],
"word": "were"
}
Download raw JSONL data for were meaning in English (2.0kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-04-05 from the simplewiktionary dump dated 2025-04-03 using wiktextract (8c1bb29 and fb63907). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.