# garbage

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈɡɑː.bɪd͡ʒ/ · frequency rank #5,327

## Definitions
1. Food waste material of any kind.
2. foul, rotten or unripe vegetable matter.
3. Useless or disposable material; waste material of any kind.
4. Specifically, waste material destined not to be reclaimed through recycling, composting, etc.
5. A place or receptacle for waste material.
6. Nonsense; gibberish.
7. Something or someone worthless.
8. The bowels of an animal; refuse parts of flesh; offal.
9. An easy shot.
10. Allocated memory which is no longer in use but has not yet been deallocated.
11. Data that are misinterpreted as another kind of data.

## Etymology
From late Middle English garbage (“the offal of a fowl, giblets, kitchen waste”, originally “refuse, what is purged away”), from Anglo-Norman, from Old French garber (“to refine, make neat or clean”), of Germanic origin, from Frankish *garwijan (“to make ready”).
Akin to Old High German garawan (“to prepare, make ready”), Old English ġearwian (“to make ready, adorn”). More at garb, yare, gear

## Easily confused with
- **garage** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/garage-vs-garbage)

## Common misspellings (10)
`agrbage`, `gabrage`, `garabge`, `garbaeg`, `garbagge`, `garbbage`, `garbgae`, `garrbage`, `ggarbage`, `grabage`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/garbage