Wear

How to spell wear

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce wear

What does wear mean?

1. verbTo have clothing, jewellery, or a similar item on the body.
2. verbTo become damaged, thinner, or weaker through continued use or friction.
3. nounClothing of a particular type, or the damage caused by ongoing use.

Wear in a sentence

• verb

  She likes to wear a warm coat on cold mornings.

• verb

  Cheap tyres tend to wear down quickly on rough roads.

• noun

  The shop sells smart office wear for both men and women.

• verb

  Employees must wear a visible identity badge at all times.

• verb

  Constant footsteps will wear a path into the grass over time.

• noun

  The old carpet showed heavy wear near the doorway.

Where does wear come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends from the Old English verb 'werian', meaning 'to clothe, cover, or put on the body', which traces back to a Proto-Germanic root 'wazjan' and ultimately to an ancient root meaning 'to clothe' that also fed Latin 'vestis' (garment). For most of its history it simply meant to carry something on the person, and only later picked up the everyday sense of clothing gradually rubbing away or being damaged through use, giving us the familiar phrase 'wear and tear'. It is a close relative of the modern noun 'vest', which shares that same clothing root by a different path through Latin. The spelling is a genuine trap because it sounds identical to 'where' (the place word) and 'ware' (goods for sale), yet all three are unrelated in origin. Keeping the bare 'w-e-a-r' shape in mind, with the same 'ear' ending as 'tear' and 'bear', is the surest way to avoid those homophone slips.

How the word is built

• wear (from Old English werian: to clothe, cover, or carry on the body)

Words that sound like wear

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

• ware: An article of manufacture or merchandise, especially a type of pottery or ceramic offered for sale.
• where: In, at, or to what place, or the place in or at which something happens.