would
/(w)ʊ(l)d/verb, noun, interjection
would is spelled W-O-U-L-D. The wrong spelling people search most is whould: about 30 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 71 of all searches for the word. Would is a verb meaning “Used to form the "anterior future", or "future in the past", indicating a futurity relative to a past time”.
How many letters and syllables are in would?
| Letters | 5: W-O-U-L-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1,862 times per million words; the 64th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, whould, about 30 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search |
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).
How do you spell would?
Would is spelled W-O-U-L-D. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 54 of the searches for would in either form.
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). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is would?
Would appears 1,862 times per million words in written English, the 64th 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 would?
- /wəd/
- /əd/
- /(w)ʊ(l)d/
Would 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)-Pvanp7-would_(more_distinctly_unstressed).wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Pvanp7-would_(stressed).wav, En-us-would.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with would
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: wud.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of would
- woulds plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does would mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
Used to form the "anterior future", or "future in the past", indicating a futurity relative to a past time.
On my first day at University, I met the woman who would become my wife.
- 2
Used to, did repeatedly, habitually; indicates an action that happened several times in the past (cannot describe continuous states, as in I used to live in London)
When we were younger, we would cycle out to the beach most summer Sundays.
- 3
Was or were determined to; indicating someone's insistence upon doing something.
I asked her to stay in with me, but she would go out.
- 4
archaicWanted to.
The Greeks, especially those who would be thought adepts in mystic theology, ran after fantastic allegories […].
- 5
archaicUsed with ellipsis of the infinitive verb, or postponement to a relative clause, in various senses.
- 6
obsoleteWished, desired (something).
- 7
Used as the auxiliary of the simple conditional modality, indicating a state or action that is conditional on another.
If I won the lottery, I would give half the money to charity.
- 8
Without explicit condition, or with loose or vague implied condition, indicating a hypothetical or imagined state or action.
I would love to come and visit.
noun
- 1
Something that would happen, or would be the case, under different circumstances; a potentiality.
interjection
- 1
slangEllipsis of I would, used to denote that the speaker finds another person sexually attractive.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate would?
Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of would: wd, wld.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Would in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | We sat on the bench , In the winters , vouloir, veuillez, pouvoir, s'il te plaît? |
| German | We sat on the bench, ob der Bus diesmal zu spät käme. , In the winters , er sei sofort wieder da. |
| Portuguese | We sat on the bench , In the winters , por favor, por favor?, Poderia desligar a televisão |
| Spanish | conditional tense, We sat on the bench , In the winters , por favor, por favor? |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does would come from?
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).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).