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'twere

American  
[twur, twer] / twɜr, twər /
  1. contraction of it were.


’twere British  
/ twə, twɜː /

contraction

  1. it were

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

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