WAS

BE

be

(verb) spend or use time; “I may be an hour”

be, follow

(verb) work in a specific place, with a specific subject, or in a specific function; “He is a herpetologist”; “She is our resident philosopher”

exist, be

(verb) have an existence, be extant; “Is there a God?”

be

(verb) have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun); “John is rich”; “This is not a good answer”

be, live

(verb) have life, be alive; “Our great leader is no more”; “My grandfather lived until the end of war”

be

(verb) be identical to; be someone or something; “The president of the company is John Smith”; “This is my house”

constitute, represent, make up, comprise, be

(verb) form or compose; “This money is my only income”; “The stone wall was the backdrop for the performance”; “These constitute my entire belonging”; “The children made up the chorus”; “This sum represents my entire income for a year”; “These few men comprise his entire army”

be

(verb) occupy a certain position or area; be somewhere; “Where is my umbrella?”; “The toolshed is in the back”; “What is behind this behavior?”

equal, be

(verb) be identical or equivalent to; “One dollar equals 1,000 rubles these days!”

embody, be, personify

(verb) represent, as of a character on stage; “Derek Jacobi was Hamlet”

cost, be

(verb) be priced at; “These shoes cost $100”

be

(verb) happen, occur, take place; “I lost my wallet; this was during the visit to my parents’ house”; “There were two hundred people at his funeral”; “There was a lot of noise in the kitchen”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Verb

was

first-person singular simple past indicative of be.

third-person singular simple past indicative of be.

(now, colloquial) Used in phrases with existential there when the semantic subject is (usually third-person) plural.

(now, colloquial or nonstandard) second-person singular simple past indicative of be.

(colloquial, nonstandard) first-person plural simple past indicative of be

Anagrams

• ASW, AWS, SAW, Saw, aws, saw

Proper noun

Was (plural Wases)

A surname.

Source: Wiktionary


Was. Etym: [AS. wæs, 2d pers. wære, 3d pers. wæs, pl. wæron, with the inf. wesan to be; akin to D. wezen, imp. was, OHG. wesan, imp. was, G. wesen, n., a being, essence, war was, Icel. vera to be, imp. var, Goth. wisan to be, to dwell, to remain, imp. was, Skr. vas to remain, to dwell. sq. root148. Cf. Vernacular, Wassail, Were, v.]

Definition: The first and third persons singular of the verb be, in the indicative mood, preterit (imperfect) tense; as, I was; he was.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



RESET




Word of the Day

11 January 2025

COWBERRY

(noun) low evergreen shrub of high north temperate regions of Europe and Asia and America bearing red edible berries


coffee icon

Coffee Trivia

Coffee dates back to the 9th century. Goat herders in Ethiopia noticed their goats seem to be “dancing” after eating berries from a particular shrub. They reported it to the local monastery, and a monk made a drink out of it. The monk found out he felt energized and kept him awake at night. That’s how the first coffee drink was born.

coffee icon