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waffle

waf·fle/ˈwɑf.əl/noun, verb

waffle is spelled W-A-F-F-L-E: 6 letters and 2 syllables (waf·fle). It appears 2.0 times per million words in written English, the 19,589th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, waffle means “A flat pastry pressed with a grid pattern, often eaten hot with butter and/or honey or syrup” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of waffle is waffles.

How many letters and syllables are in waffle?

Letters6: W-A-F-F-L-E
Syllables2: waf·fle
In writing2.0 times per million words; the 19,589th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is waffle?

Waffle appears 2.0 times per million words in written English, the 19,589th 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 waffle?

  • UK /ˈwɒf.əl/
  • UK [wɒf.əl] ~ [wɒf.l̩]
  • US /ˈwɑf.əl/

Waffle has 2 syllables, split waf·fle in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-waffle.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of waffle

  • waffles plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • waffling participle, present
  • waffled participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does waffle mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A flat pastry pressed with a grid pattern, often eaten hot with butter and/or honey or syrup.

    The brunch was waffles with strawberries and whipped cream.

  2. 2

    UKIn full potato waffle: a savoury flat potato cake with the same kind of grid pattern.

  3. 3

    A concrete slab used in flooring with a gridlike structure of ribs running at right angles to each other on its underside.

  4. 4

    A type of fabric woven with a honeycomb texture.

  5. 5

    colloquial(Often lengthy) speech or writing that is evasive or vague, or pretentious.

    This interesting point seems to get lost a little within a lot of self-important waffle.

  6. 6

    UKThe high-pitched sound made by a young dog; also, a muffled bark.

verb

  1. 1

    slangTo smash (something).

    These were not the Cowboys who were waffled, 45–14, here at mid-season. They came prepared to play a championship football game, with an ultra-conservative game plan suited to the horrendous turf conditions, and came close to pulling it off

  2. 2

    UKTo speak or write evasively or vaguely.

    He waffled on for much of the earnings call without addressing the fall in share price.

  3. 3

    Of a bird: to move in a side-to-side motion while descending before landing.

    The geese waffled as they approached the water.

  4. 4

    colloquialOf an aircraft or motor vehicle: to travel in a slow and unhurried manner.

  5. 5

    ScotlandcolloquialTo be indecisive about something; to dither, to vacillate, to waver.

  6. 6

    Often followed by on: to speak or write (something) at length without any clear aim or point; to ramble.

  7. 7

    To hold horizontally and rotate (one's hand) back and forth in a gesture of ambivalence or vacillation.

  8. 8

    UKOf a dog: to bark with a high pitch like a puppy, or in muffled manner.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Waffle in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchgaufre (flat pastry pressed with a grid pattern), langue de bois ((often lengthy) speech or writing that is…)
GermanWaffel (flat pastry pressed with a grid pattern), Geschwafel, leere Phrasen ((often lengthy) speech or writing that is…), schwafeln (to speak or write evasively or vaguely), gemächlich dahingleiten (of an aircraft or motor vehicle: to travel in a…)
Portuguesewaffle, gofre (flat pastry pressed with a grid pattern), palrança, palração, palha ((often lengthy) speech or writing that is…), palrar (to speak or write (something) at length without…)
Spanishwaffle, wafle, gofre, guafle (flat pastry pressed with a grid pattern), divagar (to speak or write (something) at length without…)

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 waffle come from?

The noun is borrowed from Dutch wafel (“waffle; wafer”), from Middle Dutch wafel, wafele, wavel, from Old Dutch *wāvila, from Proto-Germanic *wēbilǭ, *wēbilō, possibly related to Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to braid, weave”) (whence Dutch weven (“to weave”) and English weave; compare, from the same verbal root, German Wabe (“honeycomb”), given that the grid pattern of the traditional Dutch lent and holiday pastry strikingly resembles a honeycomb), and possibly reinforced by German Waffel (“waffle; wafer”). The English word is a doublet of wafer and gauffre.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after waffle