wave

UK/weɪv/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/wɛjv/

wave verb: to move back and forth repeatedly and somewhat loosely. Also the obsolete spelling of waive.

Image: Malene Thyssen, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb (1)

wave (third-person singular simple present waves, present participle waving, simple past and past participle waved)

(intransitive) To move back and forth repeatedly and somewhat loosely.
- The flag waved in the gentle breeze.
- But the World Cup winning veteran's left boot was awry again, the attempt sliced horribly wide of the left upright, and the saltires were waving aloft again a moment later when a long pass in the England midfield was picked off to almost offer up a breakaway try.2011 October 1, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland”, in BBC Sport
(intransitive) To move one's hand back and forth (generally above the shoulders) in greeting or departure.
- I raised my arms in a final salute. I smiled. I waved goodbye. I turned into the helicopter, the door was closed, the red carpet was rolled up.1978, Richard Nixon, RN: the Memoirs of Richard Nixon, Grosset & Dunlap, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 1090
(metonymically, transitive) To call attention to, or give a direction or command to, by a waving motion, as of the hand; to signify by waving; to beckon; to signal; to indicate.
- I waved goodbye from across the room.
- Look, with what courteous action / It waves you to a more removed ground.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
(intransitive) To have an undulating or wavy form.
(transitive) To raise into inequalities of surface; to give an undulating form or surface to.
- horns whelked and waved like the enridged seac. 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...
(transitive) To style (the hair) so as to produce a wavy texture.
- There was also hairdressing: hairdressing, too, really was hairdressing in those times — no running a comb through it and that was that. It was curled, frizzed, waved, put in curlers overnight, waved with hot tongs;[…].1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN
(intransitive) To swing and miss at a pitch.
- Jones waves at strike one.
(transitive) To cause to move back and forth repeatedly.
- The starter waved the flag to begin the race.
- His father has waved bills in front of face and said to him — see what you've cost me.1977 August 13, Pala Bennett, Mary Jo Risher, “"I'm A Mother, And I'm A Good One."”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 6, page 9
(metonymically, transitive) To signal (someone or something) with a waving movement.
(intransitive, obsolete) To fluctuate; to waver; to be in an unsettled state.
- He waved indifferently 'twixt doing them neither good nor harm.c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
(ergative, intransitive) To move like a wave, or by floating; to waft.
- But in the last, this dotted line, by the twisting as well as the bending of the horn, is changed from the waving into the serpentine line1803, William Hogarth, Anecdotes of Mr. Hogarth: And Explanatory Descriptions of the Plates of Hogarth Restored, page 137
- the flowers will not bloom less brightly, nor the grass be less green and fresh because it is waving over the head of one who loved to look upon their tender beauty while living.1850, Pierce Egan, Robin Hood and Little John: or, The merry men of Sherwood forest, page 272

Noun (1)

wave (plural waves)

A moving disturbance in the level of a body of liquid; an undulation.
- The wave traveled from the center of the lake before breaking on the shore.
- O God! can I not save / One from the pitiless wave? / Is all that we see or seem / But a dream within a dream?1849 March 31, Edgar Allan Poe, “A Dream Within a Dream”, in The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe: […], volumes II (Poems and Miscellanies), New York, N.Y.: J. S. Redfield, […], published 1850...
Synonyms:

und
(poetic) The ocean.
- […] your father Murtagh Ross, and his lawful childless wife, Dionaid, and his sister Anna—one and all, they lie beneath the green wave or in the brown mould.1895, Fiona Macleod (William Sharp), The Sin-Eater and Other Tales
- Whoever rules the waves rules the world...2024 January 14, Kim Darroch, “Whoever rules the waves rules the world... The Red Sea crisis will show us if that’s true”, in The Observer
A moving disturbance in the energy level of a field.
- Gravity waves, while predicted by theory for decades, have been notoriously difficult to detect.
- Beyond military applications, cloaking devices are drawing interest from telecommunications companies, who see them as a way to send information by light more efficiently. One idea is to use the new materials to build "superantennas" that can concentrate light and other electromagnetic waves to...2010 March 18, Ian Sample, “Cloaking device makes objects invisible – to infrared light anyway”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from...
A shape that alternatingly curves in opposite directions.
- Her hair had a nice wave to it.
- sine wave
Any of a number of species of moths in the geometrid subfamily Sterrhinae, which have wavy markings on the wings.
A loose back-and-forth movement, as of the hands.
- He dismissed her with a wave of the hand.
(figuratively) A sudden, but temporary, uptick in something.
- A wave of shoppers stampeded through the door when the store opened for its Christmas discount special.
- A wave of retirees began moving to the coastal area.
Synonyms:

rush
(logistics) Any of a series of orders to be fulfilled in one short interval of time, planned as part of wave picking.
(figuratively) A movement or trend in popular culture.
- New Wave
- Korean Wave
(broadly) One of the successive swarms of enemies sent to attack the player in certain games.
- As the player eliminates each wave of 55 aliens, the next wave begins lower than the one previous.2011, Raffaele Cecco, Supercharged JavaScript Graphics: With HTML5 Canvas and jQuery
(usually “the wave”) A group activity in a crowd imitating a wave going through water, where people in successive parts of the crowd stand and stretch upward, then sit.

Synonyms:

Mexican wave

Verb (2)

wave (third-person singular simple present waves, present participle waving, simple past and past participle waved)

To generate a wave.
- If the electron had wavelike properties, then what was disturbing the medium in which the wave existed? What was waving?2021, Michio Kaku, The God Equation

Noun (2) capitalized: WAVE

WAVE (plural WAVES)

(US, historical) A members of the WAVES; a member of the US Naval Reserve (Women's Reserve).
- [H]e read the faded sticker on the crystal of the door, “A slip of the lip can sink a ship.” Below a WAVE held her finger to lips that had turned tan.1963 (date written), John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces, London: Penguin Books, published 1980 (1981 printing), →ISBN

Also used as

wave is also the obsolete spelling of waive.

wave meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

wave in Hindi

moving disturbance, undulation: लहर lahar, मौज mauj

wave in Tamil

moving disturbance, undulation: அலை alai

wave in Urdu

moving disturbance, undulation: لَہْر lahr, مَوج mauj

wave in Bengali

to wave one’s hand: হাত নাড়ানো hat naṛanō
moving disturbance, undulation: তরঙ্গ toroṅgo, ঢেউ ḍheu

More languagesFewer languages

wave in Telugu: ఊపు ūpu, తరంగం taraṅgaṁ, కెరటం keraṭaṁ, అల ala
wave in Malayalam: തിരമാല tiramāla, തിര tira
wave in Kannada: ಅಲೆಯಲು
wave in Punjabi: ਲਹਿਰ ਲਾਉਣਾ
wave in Gujarati: તરંગ કરવા માટે
wave in Odia: ତରଙ୍ଗ କରିବା ପାଇଁ, ତରଙ୍ଗ କରିବାକୁ
wave in Sanskrit: तरंग taraṃga, ऊर्मि ūrmi, अर्णव arṇava
wave in Sinhala: රැල්ල rælla
wave in Assamese: ঢৌ dhou, লহৰ lohor, তৰংগ toroṅgo
wave in Pashto: موج mawj, څپه čapa, باډاسکه bāḍāska
wave in Tagalog: kumaway, ikaway, kumampay, ikampay
wave in Arabic: لَوَّحَ lawwaḥa, رَفْرَفَ rafrafa, مَوْج mawj, مَوْجَة mawja
wave in Malay: lambai, gelombang, alun, bena
wave in Indonesian: alun, ombak, gelombang
wave in Thai: โบก bòok, คลื่น klʉ̂ʉn
wave in Vietnamese: vẫy tay, vẫy, sóng
wave in Myanmar: လှိုင်း hluing:, တံပိုး tampui:

Examples of wave in a sentence

A wave of emotion overcame her when she thought about her son who was killed in battle.
She spoke, and bowing waved / Dismissal.1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Part 2”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:
The cypresslike ferns were not waving over these, as they waved over the corals in the wood, but the little spleenwort, called Wall-rue, was resolved that their tomb should not be without verdure.1851, Margaret Plues, Rambles in Search of Ferns, page 31:
The moonlight fell into the room, and the shadows waved over him1866, John Saunders, Bound to the Wheel, page 89:
A chill waved over my consciousness as my worst nightmare erupted into reality.1997, Elizabeth Barrett, Victoria Bovard, And His Love Shown Down, page 88:

All 40 example sentences with wave

Synonyms of wave

Forms of wave

Verb
third-person singular present	waves
present participle	waving
past participle	waved
past	waved
Noun
plural	waves
plural	WAVES

Past tense of wave: waved

Plural of wave: waves

Origin of wave

From Middle English waven, from Old English wafian (“to wave, fluctuate, waver in mind, wonder”), from Proto-West Germanic *wabōn, from Proto-Germanic *wabōną, *wabjaną (“to wander, sway”), from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to move to and from, wander”). Cognate with Middle High German waben (“to wave”), German wabern (“to waft”), Icelandic váfa (“to fluctuate, waver, doubt”). See also waver.

From Middle English *wave, partially from waven (“to fluctuate, wave”) (see above) and partially from Middle English wawe, waghe (“wave”), from Old English wǣg (“a wave, billow, motion, water, flood, sea”), from Proto-Germanic *wēgaz (“motion, storm, wave”), from Proto-Indo-European *weǵʰ- (“to drag, carry”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian waag (“wave”), West Frisian weach (“wave”), Dutch waag (“wave”), German Woge, Wooge (“wave”), Danish vove, våg (“wave”), Faroese vágur (“bay”), Icelandic vogur (“bay”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish våg (“wave”), Gothic 𐍅𐌴𐌲𐍃 (wēgs, “wave”), French vague (“wave”) (from Old Norse vágr (“ocean, sea; wave”)). See also waw.

See waive.

Phrases with wave

148 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with wave

29 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about wave

What does wave mean?: Wave means to move back and forth repeatedly and somewhat loosely.
What is wave in Hindi?: Wave in Hindi is लहर (lahar), मौज (mauj). See Wave meaning in Hindi.
How do you use wave in a sentence?: A wave of emotion overcame her when she thought about her son who was killed in battle.
What part of speech is wave?: Wave can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce wave?: Wave is pronounced /weɪv/ (UK).
What is the past tense of wave?: The past tense of wave is waved.

Words near wave in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: wave (page history and authors); WAVE (page history and authors); wave (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); wave (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); wave (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); wave (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-wave.wav.

Cite this entry: “wave.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wave. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.