words

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of word.

   The editor cut about two hundred words from the article.

   Some words sound the same but are spelled differently.

   Note

   This regular plural can count two different things. Usually it counts units of speech or writing, but it can also count a fixed measure of text, five characters plus a space. That is why a typed word count need not match the words actually on the page. The same spelling is also the verb's present tense, as in she words her letters carefully.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of word.

   The committee words every clause to avoid ambiguity.

   She words her requests politely, even when she is frustrated.

   Note

   The verb behind this form almost always takes an object: she words her requests politely, the committee words each clause with care. An older intransitive use, meaning simply to speak or converse, is archaic, and a sense of flattering someone with words is obsolete. A bare he words with no object will therefore read oddly in modern prose. On the page it looks just like the everyday plural.

3. 3
   nounplural

   An angry exchange of speech between people in conflict; a heated argument.

   The two neighbors came to words over the fence line.

   Harsh words were exchanged before he stormed out of the meeting.

   Similarargument, quarrel

   Note

   Understatement does the work here. To say two people had words is to say they quarreled, without naming the heat. The usual frame is have words with someone, as in she had words with him once she learned the truth. The plural is fixed too: no single word carries this meaning, so in this use the noun never takes a or one.

4. 4
   nounplural

   The spoken lines an actor delivers from a script in a play or other performance.

   He stumbled over his words during the climactic monologue.

   The director asked the cast to learn their words by Friday's rehearsal.

   Similarlines

5. 5
   nounplural

   The text of a song, sung to its melody; the lyrics.

   She wrote the music first and added the words later.

   The crowd sang along, shouting the words to the final chorus.

   Similarlyrics

Showing meanings only. Show all 5