From Middle English was, from Old English wæs, from Proto-Germanic *was, (compare Scots was, Western Frisian was (dated, wie is generally preferred today), Dutch was, Low German was, German war, Swedish var), from Proto-Indo-European (compare bsh vos-, Sanskrit उवास), from *h₂wes- ("to reside"), whence also vestal.

• (UK, New Zealand) enPR: wŏz, wŭz, IPA: /wɒz/, /wʌz/
• (US) enPR: wŭz, wŏz, IPA: /wʌz/, /wɑz/
• (Australia) enPR: wŏz, IPA: /wɔz/
• (British, America) enPR: wəz, IPA: /wəz/

1. first-person singular simple past indicative of be.

   I was castigated and scorned.

2. third-person singular simple past indicative of be.

   It was a really humongous slice of cake.

   • 1915, John Millington Synge, The Playboy of the Western World, section I:

     I killed my poor father, Tuesday was a week, for doing the like of that.

3. (now, colloquial) Used in phrases with existential there when the semantic subject is (usually third-person) plural.

   There was three of them there.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Gen 40:17 ↗:

     And in the vppermoſt baſket there was of all maner of †bake-meats foꝛ Pharaoh,and the birds did eat them out of the baſket vpon my head.

4. (now, colloquial or nonstandard, AAVE) second-person singular simple past indicative of be; were.
   • 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XXXIII”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson;  […], →OCLC ↗:

     You was pleased to cast a favourable eye upon me.

   • 1913, Arthur Conan Doyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Poison Belt […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC ↗:

     "Was you outside the Bank of England, sir?"

5. (colloquial, nonstandard) first-person plural simple past indicative of be; were.
6. (colloquial, nonstandard, AAVE) third-person plural simple past indicative of be; were.
   • 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 24 ↗:

     Take or be taken. Get yours or get got. It was the code of the streets and I'd lived by it. The way things was looking, I was prolly gone die by it too.

1. Surname.

1. plural form of WA