wane
Plural: wanes
Noun
- a gradual decline (in size or strength or power or number)
- A gradual diminution in power, value, intensity etc.
- The lunar phase during which the sun seems to illuminate less of the moon as its sunlit area becomes progressively smaller as visible from Earth.
- The end of a period.
- A rounded corner caused by lack of wood, often showing bark.
- A child.
- A house or dwelling.
Verb
Verb Forms: waned, waning, wanes
- To decrease in size, extent, or power; to diminish.
- grow smaller
- "Interest in the project waned"
- become smaller
- "Interest in his novels waned"
- decrease in phase
- To progressively lose its splendor, value, ardor, power, intensity etc.; to decline.
- For light to dim or diminish in strength.
- For the Moon to pass through the phases of its monthly cycle where its surface is less and less visible.
- Said of a time period that comes to an end.
- To decrease physically in size, amount, numbers or surface.
- To cause to decrease.
Examples
- As the tiles dwindled, the number of possible words began to wane.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English wane, from Old English wana (“defect, shortage”), from Proto-West Germanic *wanō, from Proto-Germanic *wanô, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- (“to leave, abandon; empty, deserted”).
Cognates
See also wan-, want, and waste. Compare also Dutch waan (“insanity”) and German Wahn (“insanity”) deprecated defect, Old Norse vanr (“lacking”) ( > Danish prefix van-, only found in compounds), Latin vanus, Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌽𐍃 (wans, “missing, lacking”), Albanian vonë (“late, futile, mentally retarded”), Armenian ունայն (unayn, “empty”), Old Saxon and Old High German wanon (“to decrease”), Modern Dutch weinig (“a few”), Modern German weniger (“less”), comparative of wenig (“few”) (-ig being a derivate suffix; -er the suffix of comparatives). Doublet of vain, vaunt, vaniloquent, vast, vacuum, vacant, vacate, which are Latin-derived, via the PIE root.
Antonyms
Scrabble Score: 7
wane: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordwane: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
wane: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary