wade
/weɪd/verb, noun
wade is spelled W-A-D-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 9.5 times per million words in written English, the 7,338th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, wade means “To walk through water or something that impedes progress” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in wade?
| Letters | 4: W-A-D-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 9.5 times per million words; the 7,338th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Sounds like | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is wade?
Wade appears 9.5 times per million words in written English, the 7,338th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce wade?
- /weɪd/
- /wed/
Wade has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-wade.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with wade
Sounds like: wayed (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with wade?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as wade.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: awed.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of wade
- wades present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- wading participle, present
- waded participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does wade mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To walk through water or something that impedes progress.
- 2
To progress with difficulty.
to wade through a dull book
- 3
To walk through (water or similar impediment); to pass through by wading.
wading swamps and rivers
- 4
To gleam intermittently through clouds or mist.
- 5
To enter recklessly.
to wade into a fight or a debate
noun
- 1
An act of wading.
We had to be careful during our dangerous wade across the river.
- 2
colloquialA ford; a place to cross a river.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Wade in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | patauger |
| German | waten |
| Portuguese | vadear , vadeação, vadeamento |
| Spanish | vadear, esguazar , vadeo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does wade come from?
From Middle English waden, from Old English wadan, from Proto-West Germanic *wadan, from Proto-Germanic *wadaną (“to go, pass through”), from Proto-Indo-European *weh₂dʰ- (“to go”). Cognates include Saterland Frisian waadje (“to wade”), West Frisian wâdzje (“to wade”), Dutch waden (“to wade”), German Low German waden (“to wade”), German waten (“to wade”), Danish vade (“to wade”), Swedish vada (“to wade”), Icelandic vaða (“to wade”), and Latin vādō (“go, walk; rush”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).