Werewolf

How to spell werewolf

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce werewolf

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does werewolf mean?

1. nounA mythical creature that is human by day but transforms into a wolf, traditionally under a full moon.

Werewolf in a sentence

• The horror film features a werewolf that hunts the villagers each full moon.

• Folklore across Europe describes the werewolf as a cursed human who changes shape at night.

Where does werewolf come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word comes straight from Old English werewulf, a compound of wer, meaning 'man', and wulf, meaning 'wolf', so it literally describes a man-wolf, a person who turns into a wolf. The wer element is an ancient one shared across the early Germanic languages and ultimately related to the Latin vir, meaning 'man', which also survives in English words like 'virile'. By the time the older sense of wer as an ordinary word for 'man' faded from the language, it lingered on inside this single eerie compound, which is why the opening looks so unfamiliar to modern eyes. The folklore of shape-shifting humans is very old, and the word has stayed remarkably stable in spelling for over a thousand years. The main trap today is that the 'were-' beginning is pronounced and often mistyped like 'where' or 'wear', even though it is a wholly separate ancient root meaning simply 'man'.

How the word is built

• were- (from Old English wer: man)
• wolf (the animal)