are

¹ American  

[ahr, er] / ɑr, ər /

verb

1. present indicative plural and 2nd person singular of be.

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are ² American  

[air, ahr] / ɛər, ɑr /

noun

1. a measure of surface area: 1 are is equal to 1/100 (0.01) of a hectare (100 square meters or 119.6 square yards). a

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are ¹ British  

/ ɑː, ə /

verb

1. the plural form of the present tense (indicative mood) of the verb `be' and the singular form used with you

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are ² British  

/ ɑː /

noun

1.  a.  a unit of area equal to 100 sq metres or 119.599 sq yards; one hundredth of a hectare

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Etymology

Origin of are¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English aren, are, arn, Old English (Northumbrian) aron; cognate with Old Norse eru, 3rd person plural; replacing Old English bēoth, sind; art ²

Origin of are²

First recorded in 1810–20; from French, from Latin ārea “vacant piece of level ground, open space in a town, threshing floor”; area

Explanation

Are is the plural of "is" and "am," a form of the most common verb "be." He is going, but we are going. Are is also used with you, as in, "Are you going to the movies?" In English, the forms of be break down like this: "I am; you are; he is; we are; they are; you (more than one of you) are." Are, of course, is only used when you are talking about things that are happening now. When they already happened, the word is were: we are here now, but we were there yesterday. Are is also a metric measurement equal to 100 square meters, but the unit is rarely used these days.

Example Sentences

Meanwhile, Altman said in this week’s Axios interview that “the frontier models are all sort of in the hands of pretty responsible companies.”

From MarketWatch • Apr. 11, 2026

But while credit funds are making headlines, private equity is the far bigger asset class, with much larger companies.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 11, 2026

All frontier labs have to think about ensuring that proper guardrails are put in place so that agents simply end up doing “exactly what they’ve been told to do,” Hassabis added.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 11, 2026

Because there’s no e-shop, guests rely on people-watching at the tournament and on social media throughout the week to see what other people are buying and to inform their wish lists.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 11, 2026

One last strum through C major, the sound of everything being okay, and I sing the opening line: “This song is your Valentine card. In it are all the words I could never say.”

From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith