we

English

/wiː/, /wi/

pron
Definitions
  • (personal) The speakers/writers, or the speaker/writer and at least one other person (not the person being addressed). This is the exclusive we.
  • (personal) The speaker(s)/writer(s) and the person(s) being addressed. This is the inclusive we.
  • (personal) The speaker/writer alone. This use of we is the editorial we, used by writers and others, including royalty—the royal we—as a less personal substitute for I. The reflexive case of this sense of we is ourself.
  • (personal)
  • (personal)

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English we inherited from Old English wē (we) inherited from Proto-Germanic *wīz inherited from Proto-Indo-European *wéy (we).

Origin

Proto-Indo-European

*wéy

Gloss

we

Concept
Semantic Field

Kinship

Ontological Category

Other

Emoji

Timeline

Distribution of cognates by language

Geogrpahic distribution of cognates

Cognates and derived terms