English Explanatory Dictionary

we

English dictionary entry

Meanings

pron
  1. Two or more people including or consisting of the speaker(s)/writer(s).
  2. Excluding the person(s) being addressed. (This is the exclusive we.)
  3. Including the person(s) being addressed. (This is the inclusive we.)
  4. The 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.)
  5. Any other entity that the speaker is a part of or identifies with, such as place of employment or education, nation, region, language, etc.
  6. People in general.
  7. The sovereign alone in his or her capacity as monarch. (This is the royal we. The reflexive case of this sense of we is ourself.)
  8. Everyone being addressed.
  9. An 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.)
  10. Used to refer to a third person, especially someone in the speaker's care.
  11. Used to connect to or include readers or listeners.
  12. Used to imply connection between the speaker's experiences or activities and a group of listeners. (Compare the plural of modesty.)
det
  1. Designates the speaker(s)/writer(s) as belonging to or constituting the stated category of people.
pron
  1. us
name
  1. Initialism of Western Europe.
noun
  1. Initialism of war establishment.
pron
  1. Honorific alternative letter-case form of of we, sometimes used when speaking as an important figure or figures.

Pronunciation

wē /wiː/ En-uk-we.ogg LL-Q1860 (eng)-Greenman-we.wav /wi/ en-us-we.ogg /wə/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-we2.wav

Word forms

we us our ours ourselves ourself WEs

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).

Antonyms

they

Related words

He She They Thou You

Derived words

are we deadass are we there yet as we know it as we speak author's we can we say even as we speak here we are here we go here we go again Houston, we have a problem imperial we lest we forget let's not and say we did shall we say the devil we know is better than the devil we don't the devil we know is better than the devil we don't know the poor we will always have with us the real treasure is the friends we made along the way there we go this is where we came in this is why we can't have nice things today we are all until we meet again we all bleed red we all make mistakes we are where we are we aye we been knew we come in peace we-group we have always been at war with Eastasia we have company we haven't got all day we live in a society we-uns we wuz kangz we wuz kangz n sheeit we wuz kangz n shiet what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive what tangled webs we weave when first we practice to deceive where are we where are we going

Translations

Abinomn: awp Abkhaz: ҳара Abom: neː Afar: nanu Afrikaans: ons Aghwan: 𐔷𐔰𐕎 Akan: yɛn Albanian: ne Southern Altai: бис Alviri-Vidari: جیمه Amharic: እኛ Arabic: نَحْنُ Arabic: احنا Arabic: نحنا Arabic: إحنا Chadian Arabic: أنحن Tunisian Arabic: أَحْنَا Aragonese: nusatros Aragonese: nusatras Aramaic: אֲנַחְנָא Aramaic: אֲנַן Aramaic: ܐ̄ܢܲܚܢܲܢ Aramaic: ܚ̱ܢܲܢ Armenian: մենք Old Armenian: մեք Aromanian: noi Assamese: আমি Asturian: nosotros Asturian: nosotras Avestan: 𐬬𐬁 du Avestan: 𐬬𐬀𐬉𐬨 Azerbaijani: biz Bakhtiari: ایما Bambara: an Bangi: biso Bashkir: беҙ Basque: gu Beja: hinin Belarusian: мы Bengali: আমরা Breton: ni Bulgarian: ни́е Burmese: ကျုပ်တို့ Burmese: တို့ Burmese: ကျွန်တော်တို့ Burmese: ကျွန်မတို့ Burmese: ငါတို့ Burushaski: mî Buryat: бидэ Carpathian Rusyn: мы Catalan: nosaltres Chamicuro: a'ti Chichewa: ife
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