wane means A gradual diminution in power, value, intensity etc. It carries an Arena rating of 1897, earned across 13 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, wane ranks #80 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #274 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #692 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #1,311 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
wane is pronounced /weɪn/.
Why “wane” is a great word
A gradual decrease in size, power, or intensity. From Middle English wane, from Old English wana ("defect, shortage"), from Proto-Germanic *wanô, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- ("to leave, abandon; empty, deserted"). Unlike "wax" (its direct, celestial counterpart denoting growth) or "diminish" (a clinical reduction without the weight of inevitability), "wane" carries the resigned knowledge that loss is patterned, even expected. It is the moon's surrendering arc of light, the guttering of a candle in its final inch of wax, the quiet withdrawal of a lover's hand over years—each a slow, dignified acknowledgment that nothing holds its fullness forever.
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, v
noun
- 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.e.g.“Some French peasants also prefer to sow in the wane.” — 1906, James George Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, volume 2, page 133:
- The end of a period.e.g.“The day was in its prime, the day was in its wane, and still, uneasy in mind and body, she slept on.” — 1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC:
- A rounded corner caused by lack of wood, often showing bark.e.g.“2002, Peter Ross, Appraisal and Repair of Timber Structures, p. 11,
Sapwood, or even bark, may appear on the corners, or may have been cut off, resulting in wane, or missing timber.”
- A child.
- A house or dwelling.
verb
- To progressively lose its splendor, value, ardor, power, intensity etc.; to decline.e.g.“You saw but sorrow in its waning form.” — 1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe: A Tragedy. […], London: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringman, […], published 1676, →OCLC, (please specify the page number):
- For light to dim or diminish in strength.e.g.“The skies may hold not the splendour of sundown fast; / It wanes into twilight as dawn dies down into day.” — 1894, Algernon Charles Swinburne, A Nympholept:
- For the Moon to pass through the phases of its monthly cycle where its surface is less and less visible.e.g.“The fall of Jack, and the subsequent fall of Jill, simply represent the vanishing of one moon-spot after another, as the moon wanes.” — 1866, Sabine Baring-Gould, “The Man in the Moon”, in Curious Myths of the Middle Ages:
- Said of a time period that comes to an end.e.g.“Fast as autumn days toward winter: yet it seems//Here that autumn wanes not, here that woods and streams” — 1889, Algernon Charles Swinburne, A Swimmer's Dream:
- To decrease physically in size, amount, numbers or surface.e.g.“The snow which had been for some time waning, had given way entirely under the fresh gale of the preceding night.” — 1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], chapter XIX, in Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Or
- To cause to decrease.e.g.“In which no lustful finger can profane him,
Nor any earth with black eclipses wane him” — 1610, Ben Jonson, The Speeches at Prince Henry's Barriers:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- wanse 77% match — To wane; waste, waste away; pine; wither. vs wane →
- wanion 75% match — The wane of the moon. vs wane →
- dwine 72% match — To wither, decline, pine away. vs wane →
- waning 71% match — Becoming weaker or smaller. vs wane →
- waned 68% match — Having wanes, i.e. rounded corners caused by lack of wood, often showing bark. vs wane →
- wany 68% match — Waning or diminished in some parts; not of uniform size throughout; said especially of sawed boards or timber cut too near the outside of the log. vs wane →
- decrescence 63% match — decreasing; waning vs wane →
- decrew 62% match — To decrease, wane. vs wane →