The term 'had BEEN' is a verb phrase that is used to indicate past perfect tense. It is formed by combining the auxiliary verb 'had' with the past participle of the main verb, which in this case is 'BEEN'. The crossword solutions for this term are 'were' (4 letters) and 'was' (3 letters). Both of these words are also verbs, but they are used to indicate different tenses. 'Were' is the past tense of the verb 'to be', while 'was' is the past tense of the verb 'to be' in the singular form.