Sentence:  Another patient , a paranoid woman , for many months infuriated not only me but the ward personnel and her fellow patients by arrogantly behaving as though she owned the whole building , as though she <WSD>were</WSD> the only person in it whose needs were to be met . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)