was
/wɒz/verb
was is spelled W-A-S: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 6,607 times per million words in written English, the 16th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “was vs were” about 5,400 times a month (Google, United States). As a verb, was means “first-person singular simple past indicative of be” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in was?
| Letters | 3: W-A-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 6,607 times per million words; the 16th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is was?
Was appears 6,607 times per million words in written English, the 16th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce was?
- /wəz/
- /wɒz/
- /wʌz/
Was has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-was2.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-was.wav, En-us-was-unstressed.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with was
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with was?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as was.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: saw.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of was
- wus
- wuz
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does was mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
first-person singular simple past indicative of be.
I was castigated and scorned.
- 2
third-person singular simple past indicative of be.
It was a really humongous slice of cake.
- 3
colloquialUsed in phrases with existential there when the semantic subject is (usually third-person) plural.
There was three of them there.
- 4
colloquialnonstandardsecond-person singular simple past indicative of be; were.
- 5
colloquialnonstandardfirst-person plural simple past indicative of be; were.
- 6
colloquialnonstandardthird-person plural simple past indicative of be; were.
noun
- 1
plural of WA
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does was come from?
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.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).