wage
/weɪd͡ʒ/
wage noun: an amount of money paid to a worker for a specified quantity of work, usually calculated on an hourly basis and expressed in an amount of money per hour.
Noun
wage (plural wages)
Verb
wage (third-person singular simple present wages, present participle waging, simple past and past participle waged)
- To wager, bet.
- My life I never held but as a pawn / To wage against thine enemiesc. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- To expose oneself to, as a risk; to incur, as a danger; to venture; to hazard.
- I fear the power of Percy is too weak / To wage an instant trial with the King.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- to wake and wage a danger profitless.c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
- To employ for wages; to hire.
- Thenne said Arthur I wille goo with yow / Nay said the kynges ye shalle not at this tyme / for ye haue moche to doo yet in these landes / therfore we wille departe / and with the grete goodes that we haue goten in these landes by youre yeftes we shalle wage good knyghtes & withstande the kynge...1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xviij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book I
- [B]etter it as for him to trie the vttermoſt pointe of fortunes happe, than with diſhonour ſo to yeelde at the firſt blow of hyr frowarde hande, conſidering the abundance of treaſure whiche he had in ſtore, wherewith hee might wage ſouldiers and menne of warre out of Germanie and other places, in...1577, Raphaell Holinshed, “The Historie of Scotlande, […]”, in The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Hunne...
- To conduct or carry out (a war or other contest).
- pond'ring which of all his Sons was fit / To Reign, and wage immortal War with Wit1709, John Dryden, Mac Flecknoe
- The two are waging war, and the one triumphs by the destruction of the other.1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC
- To adventure, or lay out, for hire or reward; to hire out.
- Thou that doest liue in later times, must wage / Thy workes for wealth, and life for gold engage.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 18
- To give security for the performance of.
wage meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
wage in Hindi
- money paid to a worker
- वेतन vetan, तनख़्वाह tanxvāh, मासिक वेतन māsik vetan, दिहाड़ी dihāṛī, पगार pagār, मेहनताना mehantānā
wage in Tamil
- சம்பளம் தொடுத்தல்
wage in Urdu
- money paid to a worker
- ویتَن vetan, اَجْرَت ajrat, تَنْخواہ tanxvāh, مِحَنْتانَہ mihantāna, پَگار pagār, طَلَب talab
wage in Bengali
- money paid to a worker
- বেতন beton, উজরত ujrot
More languagesFewer languages
- wage in Malayalam
- വേതന vētana, കൂലി kūli
- wage in Kannada
- ಮಜೂರಿ, ಕೂಲಿ, ಸಂಬಳ, ವೇತನ
- wage in Punjabi
- ਉਗਵਾਈ ugavāī
- wage in Gujarati
- મજૂરી majūrī, વેતન vetan
- wage in Pashto
- معاش ma'āš, اجرت ujrat, اجوره ajura, باړی bāṛay
- wage in Tagalog
- sahod, suweldo
- wage in Arabic
- أَجْر ʔajr, رَاتِب rātib, أُجْرَة ʔujra, شَنَّ šanna
- wage in Malay
- gaji
- wage in Indonesian
- gaji
- wage in Thai
- ค่าจ้าง kâa-jâang, ค่าแรง kâa-rɛɛng, ค่าแรงงาน kâa-rɛɛng-ngaan
- wage in Vietnamese
- lương
- wage in Myanmar
- လုပ်ခ luphka.
Examples of wage in a sentence
- Wage earners that resemble nothing so much as former southern slaves.
- Workers in the American service industry usually depend on tips to even make minimum wage.
- It is difficult to provide for my family working on minimum wage.
Synonyms of wage
Forms of wage
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | wages |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | wages |
| present participle | waging |
| past participle | waged |
| past | waged |
Origin of wage
From Middle English wage, from Anglo-Norman wage, from Old Northern French wage, a northern variant of Old French gauge, guage (whence modern French gage), Medieval Latin wadium, from Frankish *waddī (cognate with Old English wedd), from Proto-Germanic *wadją (“pledge”), from Proto-Indo-European *wedʰ- (“to pledge, redeem a pledge”). Akin to Old Norse veðja (“to pledge”), Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌳𐌹 (wadi), Dutch wedde. Compare also the doublet gage. More at wed.
From Middle English wagen (“to pledge”), from Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French wagier, a northern variant of Old French guagier (whence modern French gager), itself either from guage or from a derivative of Frankish *waddī, possibly through a Vulgar Latin intermediate *wadiō from *wadium (see the noun above). See Medieval Latin wadiō and wadium for more.
Words formed from wage
- board wage
- college wage premium
- family wage
- hangman's wages
- hourly wage
- living wage
- lost wages
- maximum wage
- minimum wage
- nonwage
- shadow real wage
- slave to the wage
- slave wage
- starvation wage
- time wage
- tip wage credit
- union wage premium
- wage bill
- wage credit
- wagecuck
- wagedom
- wage drift
- wage earner
- wage-fund doctrine
- wage labor
- wage laborer
- wage labour
- wage labourer
- wageless
- wageling
- wageman
- wage moderation
- wage packet
- wage premium
- wage-push inflation
- wagery
- wage scale
- wage share
- wage slave
- wage slavery
- wage stop
- wagetaker
- wage theft
- wage thief
- wagework
- wageworker
- wageworking
- wage-worthy
- wagie
- underwage
- wageable
- wager
Phrases with wage
- wage bills
- wage stops
- wage labors
- wage scales
- wage shares
- wage slaves
- wage credits
- wage earners
- wage labours
- wage packets
- wage thieves
- wage laborers
7 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with wage
Questions about wage
- What does wage mean?
- Wage means an amount of money paid to a worker for a specified quantity of work, usually calculated on an hourly basis and expressed in an amount of money per hour.
- What is wage in Hindi?
- Wage in Hindi is वेतन (vetan), तनख़्वाह (tanxvāh), मासिक वेतन (māsik vetan). See Wage meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is wage?
- Wage can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce wage?
- Wage is pronounced /weɪd͡ʒ/.
- What is the plural of wage?
- The plural of wage is wages.
Words near wage in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: wage (page history and authors); wage (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); wage (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਉਗਵਾਈ (Punjabi) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-wage.ogg.
Cite this entry: “wage.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wage. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.