'twere
contraction of it were.
'twere
American
[twur, twer]
/ twɜr, twər /
’twere
British
/ twə, twɜː /
contraction
Usage
See contraction.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Their purpose, he tells them, is to “hold, as ’twere, the mirror up to nature” and expose “the very age and body of the time”.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 29, 2018
However the game plays out, what is clear, to paraphrase a famous Englishman, is if it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done amicably — and not too quickly.
From New York Times ● Sep. 22, 2018
Did we all swoon over Hail, Caesar’s Alden Ehrenreich the instant his cowboy Hobie Doyle drowned himself in a tuxedo and sputtered, “Would that it ’twere so simple”?
From Slate ● Jan. 5, 2017
Nevertheless, he wrote, the plaque lay “thick as if ’twere batter.”
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 21, 2015
“If it were done when *tis done,” whispered the Colonel, “then ’twere well it were done quickly.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
Their purpose, he tells them, is to “hold, as ’twere, the mirror up to nature” and expose “the very age and body of the time”.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 29, 2018
However the game plays out, what is clear, to paraphrase a famous Englishman, is if it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done amicably — and not too quickly.
From New York Times ● Sep. 22, 2018
Did we all swoon over Hail, Caesar’s Alden Ehrenreich the instant his cowboy Hobie Doyle drowned himself in a tuxedo and sputtered, “Would that it ’twere so simple”?
From Slate ● Jan. 5, 2017
Nevertheless, he wrote, the plaque lay “thick as if ’twere batter.”
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 21, 2015
If ’twere on the ground, it might only have fallen — but it was on the anvil.
From "Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village" by Laura Amy Schlitz
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
