Standard Lemma guide

were-

prefix · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • UK: /weə(ɹ)/

1

prefix

Meaning 1

Prefixed to animal names to indicate a human that shapeshifts into that animal.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: morpheme

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Back-formation from werewolf (“man-wolf”), from Old English werewulf, derived from wer (“man”) + wulf (“wolf”).

Across languages

Translations

13 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Chinese Mandarin: 人 (rén) — man
  • Danish: var- — man
  • Dutch: weer — man
  • French: garou — man
  • Italian: mannaro — man
  • Japanese: 人間 (ningen) — man
  • Korean: 사람 (saram) — man
  • Lithuanian: -takas — man
  • Lithuanian: -takė — man
  • Malay: jadian — man
  • Norwegian: var- — man
  • Polish: -ołak — man
  • Spanish: hombre — man