wax and wane
wax and wane verb: to progress cyclically through various phases, such as growth and senescence.
Verb
wax and wane (third-person singular simple present waxes and wanes, present participle waxing and waning, simple past and past participle waxed and waned)
- To progress cyclically through various phases, such as growth and senescence.
- To alternate; to increase and diminish in turn.
- The manifestation of such philosophy seemed to wax and wane, being the most common one time, but virtually without followers at another, apparently disappearing.
- Synonyms:
- ebb and flow
Synonyms of wax and wane
Forms of wax and wane
| third-person singular present | waxes and wanes |
|---|---|
| present participle | waxing and waning |
| past participle | waxed and waned |
| past | waxed and waned |
Origin of wax and wane
Literally, “grow and shrink”. Compare wax with the German cognate wachsen (“to grow”). Originally (c. 14th century) used referring to the phases of the Moon. Folk etymology has occasionally mistakenly presumed the phrase to be a reference to candles, under the notion that they are produced by applying wax to a wick and then begin to wane once they are lit.
Questions about wax and wane
- What does wax and wane mean?
- Wax and wane means to progress cyclically through various phases, such as growth and senescence.
- What part of speech is wax and wane?
- Wax and wane is a verb.
- What is the past tense of wax and wane?
- The past tense of wax and wane is waxed and waned.
Words near wax and wane in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: wax and wane (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.
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Cite this entry: “wax and wane.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wax_and_wane. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.