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PlainSpell

wag

/wæɡ/verb, noun

wag is spelled W-A-G: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.1 times per million words in written English, the 27,820th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, wag means “To swing from side to side, as an animal's tail, or someone's head to express disagreement or disbelief” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in wag?

Letters3: W-A-G
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing1.1 times per million words; the 27,820th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
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 wag?

Wag appears 1.1 times per million words in written English, the 27,820th 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 wag?

  • US /wæɡ/
  • British /waɡ/
  • Australia /wæːɡ/

Wag 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-au-wag.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with wag?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as wag from its last stressed vowel (/æɡ/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: gaw.

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 wag

  • wags present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • wagging participle, present
  • wagged participle, past

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

What does wag mean?

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

verb

  1. 1

    To swing from side to side, as an animal's tail, or someone's head to express disagreement or disbelief.

  2. 2

    AustraliaUKslangTo play truant from school.

  3. 3

    obsoleteTo go; to proceed; to move; to progress.

  4. 4

    To move continually, especially in gossip; said of the tongue.

    She's a real gossip: her tongue is always wagging.

  5. 5

    obsoleteTo leave; to depart.

  6. 6

    slangOf the tail (lower order of the batting lineup): to score more runs than expected.

    The tail wagged.

noun

  1. 1

    An oscillating movement.

    The wag of my dog's tail expresses happiness.

  2. 2

    A witty person.

noun

as WAG
  1. 1

    IrelandinformalA wife or girlfriend of a sports star or other celebrity, originally and especially of an association football player.

  2. 2

    USinformalslangAcronym of wild-ass guess; a rough estimate.

    Near-synonyms: SWAG, wild guess, uneducated guess, stab in the dark, shot in the dark; see also Thesaurus:supposition

  3. 3

    Acronym of women's artistic gymnastics.

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

Wag in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchfrétiller, remuer (to swing from side to side), sécher, faire l’école buissonnière (to skip school)
Germanwedeln (to swing from side to side), schwänzen (to skip school), Wedeln (oscillating movement), Schelm (witty person)
Portugueseabanar, dar ao rabo (to swing from side to side), vaguear (to skip school), gracejador (witty person)
Spanishmenear, rabear, colear (to swing from side to side)

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 wag come from?

From Middle English waggen, probably from Old English wagian (“to wag, wave, shake”) with reinforcement from Old Norse vaga (“to wag, waddle”); both from Proto-Germanic *wagōną (“to wag”). Related to English way. The verb may be regarded as an iterative or emphatic form of waw (verb), which is often nearly synonymous; it was used, e.g., of a loose tooth.

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

What to look up after wag