Waist or waste?
waist is a noun meaning “The part of the body between the pelvis and the stomach”; waste is a noun meaning “Excess of material, useless by-products, or damaged, unsaleable products…”. They sound the same (/weɪst/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) waste is about 7.1 times as common as waist.
What is the difference between waist and waste?
| waist | waste | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun, adjective, verb |
| Meaning | The part of the body between the pelvis and the stomach A part of a piece of clothing that covers the waist | Excess of material, useless by-products, or damaged, unsaleable products; garbage; rubbish Excrement or urine Barren; desert; empty |
| Example | The waist of a bell widens into the lip | The cage was littered with animal waste |
| Forms | waists | wastes |
| Pronunciation | /weɪst/ | /ˈweɪ̯st/ [ˈweɪ̯st] |
| In writing | 9.1 times per million words | 65 times per million words |
Sources: waist and waste in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of waist and waste
waist
- 1
The part of the body between the pelvis and the stomach
- 2
A part of a piece of clothing that covers the waist
- 3
The narrow connection between the thorax and abdomen in certain insects (e.g., bees, ants and wasps)
- 4
The middle portion of the hull of a ship or the fuselage of an aircraft
- 5
That part of the upper deck of a ship between the quarterdeck and the forecastle
- 6
The middle part of anything
The waist of a bell widens into the lip
waste
- 1
Excess of material, useless by-products, or damaged, unsaleable products; garbage; rubbish
- 2
derogatoryslangUseless and contemptible
- 3
Barren; desert; empty
- 4
To devastate; to destroy
- 5
Excrement or urine
The cage was littered with animal waste
- 6
Rejected as being defective; eliminated as being worthless; produced in excess
- 7
To squander (money or resources) uselessly; to spend (time) idly; to dissipate
We wasted millions of dollars and several years on that project
- 8
A wasteland; an uninhabited desolate region; a wilderness or desert
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, waist or waste?
waist appears 9.1 times per million words; waste 65 times per million words.
waist 9.1 times per million wordswaste 65 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).