Ware

How to spell ware

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce ware

What does ware mean?

1. nounAn article of manufacture or merchandise, especially a type of pottery or ceramic offered for sale.

Ware in a sentence

• The museum displayed fine porcelain ware from the old kiln.

• This glazed ware was fired at a very high temperature.

Where does ware come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends from the Old English waru, meaning 'goods', 'merchandise' or 'articles for sale', and it has carried that commercial sense for well over a thousand years. The root is broadly Germanic, with close cousins such as the Dutch waar and the German Ware, all pointing back to an old notion of things kept, guarded or held for trade. Some scholars connect it to the same ancient root that gives us 'wary' and 'aware', the idea being something one watches over or keeps an eye on, which fits goods being minded by a merchant. In modern English the singular 'ware' most often names a class of manufactured article, especially pottery (think of delft ware or stoneware), while the plural 'wares' covers a trader's stock generally. The spelling trap is purely aural: it sounds exactly like 'wear', 'where' and 'we're', so the meaning, goods or merchandise, is the only reliable guide to which spelling is correct.

How the word is built

• ware (from Old English waru: goods, merchandise); no affixes, the bare root that survives in compounds like hardware, earthenware and software

Words that sound like ware

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• wear: To have clothing, jewellery, or a similar item on the body.
• where: In, at, or to what place, or the place in or at which something happens.