we
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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2 characters
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English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "we", 2-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "we" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "we" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
we is aEnglishpron. It means: Two or more people including or consisting of the speaker(s)/writer(s). Pronounced /wiː/. It ranks #29 in English word frequency. Often confused with wi and Wu.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | we |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Pron |
| IPA | /wiː/ |
| Letters | 2 |
| Frequency rank | #29 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for we is 2 letters long, classified as apron, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /wiː/. Corpus data places it at rank #29 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 14 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for we in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "wi", "Wu", "wo", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *wéyder. Proto-Germanic *wīz Proto-West Germanic *wiʀ Old English wē Middle English we English we From Middle English we, from Old English wē (“we”), from Proto-West Germanic *wiʀ, from Proto-Germanic *wīz, *wiz (“we”), fr… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is we, spelled W-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Two or more people including or consisting of the speaker(s)/writer(s).
- 2Two or more people including or consisting of the speaker(s)/writer(s).
- 3The institution which the speaker/writer is acting for. (This is the editorial we, used by writers and others when speaking with the authority of their publication or organisation.)
- 4Any other entity that the speaker is a part of or identifies with, such as place of employment or education, nation, region, language, etc.
- 5People in general.
- 6The sovereign alone in his or her capacity as monarch. (This is the royal we. The reflexive case of this sense of we is ourself.)
- 7Everyone being addressed.
- 8An individual being addressed; used especially to a person in the speaker's care, or to whom advice or instruction is being given. (Sometimes called the nurse's we or the doctor's we.)
- 9Used to refer to a third person, especially someone in the speaker's care.
- 10Used to connect to or include readers or listeners.
- 11Used to connect to or include readers or listeners.
- 12Used when talking to oneself to refer to oneself.
- 13Us.
- 14The side which is keeping score.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *wéyder. Proto-Germanic *wīz Proto-West Germanic *wiʀ Old English wē Middle English we English we From Middle English we, from Old English wē (“we”), from Proto-West Germanic *wiʀ, from Proto-Germanic *wīz, *wiz (“we”), from Proto-Indo-European *wéy (“we (plural)”). Cognate with Scots wee, we (“we”), North Frisian we (“we”), West Frisian wy (“we”), Low German wi (“we”), Dutch we, wij (“we”), German wir (“we”), Danish, Swedish and Norwegian vi (“we”), Icelandic vér, við (“we”), Avestan 𐬬𐬀𐬉𐬨 (vaēm), Sanskrit वयम् (vayám).
This word in other languages
Frequency rank: #29 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter W in our English index: