'Wore' is the past tense of 'to wear'; 'war' is armed conflict between groups or nations.
Verb. Simple past of 'to wear': to have clothing or accessories on the body. Irregular: wear, wore, worn.
She wore a navy blue suit to the board meeting.
He wore the same jacket every day that autumn.
The team wore matching shirts for the company event.
Noun/verb. Armed conflict between nations, states, or groups. Also: to fight or campaign against.
The war lasted for four years and caused immense suffering.
The company declared a price war against its main competitor.
They are waging a war on plastic packaging throughout their supply chain.
Common mistake
"She war a beautiful dress" when meaning past of wear (correct: wore). These are rarely confused in speech, but in writing 'wore'/'war' typos occur especially in fast typing.
Trick to remember it
'Wore' has an E at the end — like most past-tense irregular forms that add a vowel (bore, tore, fore). 'War' has no E — short and hard like the word's meaning.
Quick rule
Is it the past of to wear? 'Wore'. Is it armed conflict? 'War'.
Did you know?
The pattern wear/wore/worn follows the same vowel-shift pattern as bear/bore/born, swear/swore/sworn, and tear/tore/torn. These are called 'strong verbs' — ancient Germanic verbs that changed their root vowel to show tense, rather than adding -ed. Old English had many more of these; most were replaced by weak (-ed) verbs over centuries. The survivors are the most commonly used verbs, which is why they resisted regularisation — frequency preserves irregularity.
Exercise 1 · Pick the right one
She _____ a bright yellow jacket that made her instantly recognisable in the crowd.
Exercise 2 · Pick the right one
The two companies are locked in a price _____ that is hurting both of them.
Exercise 3 · Form the word
Is it the past of to wear? 'Wore'. Is it armed conflict? 'War'.
"She war a beautiful dress" when meaning past of wear (correct: wore). These are rarely confused in speech, but in writing 'wore'/'war' typos occur especially in fast typing.
'Wore' has an E at the end — like most past-tense irregular forms that add a vowel (bore, tore, fore). 'War' has no E — short and hard like the word's meaning.
Bryan López
Founder of SpeakUP Academy