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wage

/weɪd͡ʒ/noun, verb

wage is spelled W-A-G-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 28 times per million words in written English, the 3,364th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, wage means “An amount of money paid to a worker for a specified quantity of work, usually calculated on an hourly basis and expressed in an amount of money per…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of wage is wages.

How many letters and syllables are in wage?

Letters4: W-A-G-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing28 times per million words; the 3,364th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

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).

How common is wage?

Wage appears 28 times per million words in written English, the 3,364th 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 wage?

  • /weɪd͡ʒ/

Wage 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-wage.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of wage

  • wages plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • waging participle, present
  • waged participle, past

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

What does wage mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    An amount of money paid to a worker for a specified quantity of work, usually calculated on an hourly basis and expressed in an amount of money per hour.

    Before her promotion, her wages were 20% less.

verb

  1. 1

    obsoleteTo wager, bet.

  2. 2

    obsoleteTo expose oneself to, as a risk; to incur, as a danger; to venture; to hazard.

  3. 3

    obsoleteTo employ for wages; to hire.

  4. 4

    To conduct or carry out (a war or other contest).

  5. 5

    To adventure, or lay out, for hire or reward; to hire out.

  6. 6

    UKobsoleteTo give security for the performance of.

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

Wage in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchsalaire (money paid to a worker), mener (to conduct or carry out)
GermanLohn, Arbeitsentgelt (money paid to a worker), führen (to conduct or carry out)
Portuguesesalário, ordenado, remuneração (money paid to a worker), conduzir, travar (to conduct or carry out)
Spanishsalario, sueldo, jornal, soldada (money paid to a worker), hacer, librar (to conduct or carry out)

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 wage come from?

From Middle English wage, from Anglo-Norman wage, from Old Northern French wage, a northern variant of Old French gauge, guage (whence modern French gage), Medieval Latin wadium, from Frankish *waddī (cognate with Old English wedd), from Proto-Germanic *wadją (“pledge”), from Proto-Indo-European *wedʰ- (“to pledge, redeem a pledge”). Akin to Old Norse veðja (“to pledge”), Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌳𐌹 (wadi), Dutch wedde. Compare also the doublet gage. More at wed.

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

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