werewolf
Americannoun
-
werewolves
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of werewolf
before 1000; Middle English werwolf, Old English werwulf, equivalent to wer man (cognate with Gothic wair, Latin vir ) + wulf wolf; cognate with Middle Dutch weerwolf, Old High German werwolf
Explanation
In European folklore, a werewolf is a man who turns into a dangerous animal at night. According to legend, the transformation of a werewolf is triggered by a full moon. Stories of werewolves have existed for thousands of years, but belief in werewolves became widespread in Europe during the Middle Ages. Today, these creatures are popular monsters that appear in books, movies, television, video games, and more. The were in werewolf comes from the Old English word wer, meaning "man."
Vocabulary lists containing werewolf
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:
She was a registered nurse when they met; he was a few years off playing werewolf Jacob Black in the blockbuster franchise that brought a sparkly vampire-human love story to life.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 27, 2026
Who knows if “Oh, Mary!” will be among the first of many reclamations of Mary Todd Lincoln as werewolf, mercenary or other genre trope.
From New York Times ● Feb. 7, 2024
Because this is at the heart of the werewolf issue, let us take a moment to examine this phenomenon.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 27, 2023
On the right is a snarling werewolf, labeled “Seattle in the news.”
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 23, 2023
She waved her wand, and the werewolf sprang to his feet, but appeared too wary to approach her.
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
“I don’t want my kids to get the idea that they should be afraid of summer, but I also don’t want to have, like, cheesy surfing werewolves be a thing.”
From Salon ● Jun. 30, 2026
But the agency did discover that a network of UFO believers within the Defense Department had created a program that investigated accounts of interdimensional creatures and werewolves on a ranch in Utah.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 22, 2026
Renowned as a queen of literary horror — her stories brim with ghosts, werewolves, zombie infants — here she reveals a realist side, journalistic yet intimate.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2025
She was also known for the Night World novels, which also feature vampires as well as witches, werewolves and shapeshifters, who secretly live among the human race.
From BBC ● Mar. 28, 2025
“How about vampires and werewolves, you believe in those?”
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
