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PlainSpell

wane

/weɪn/noun, verb

wane is spelled W-A-N-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 35,748th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “wain vs wane” about 20 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, wane means “A gradual diminution in power, value, intensity etc” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of wane is wanes.

How many letters and syllables are in wane?

Letters4: W-A-N-E
Syllables1
In writingabout once in every 1 million words; the 35,748th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Rhymes with
Same letters

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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is wane?

Wane appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 35,748th 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 wane?

  • US /weɪn/

Wane has one syllable.

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

Words people confuse with wane

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

wain vs wane20 G

Sounds like: Waine, Wayne, wain (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with wane?

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

Spelled with the same letters in another order: anew, wean.

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 wane

  • wanes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • waning participle, present
  • waned participle, past
  • wain
  • waine
  • wean
  • wone

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

What does wane mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A gradual diminution in power, value, intensity etc.

  2. 2

    The lunar phase during which the sun seems to illuminate less of the moon as its sunlit area becomes progressively smaller as visible from Earth.

  3. 3

    The end of a period.

    ]

  4. 4

    A rounded corner caused by lack of wood, often showing bark.

  5. 5

    ScotlandslangA child.

  6. 6

    ScotlandobsoleteA house or dwelling.

verb

  1. 1

    To progressively lose its splendor, value, ardor, power, intensity etc.; to decline.

  2. 2

    For light to dim or diminish in strength.

  3. 3

    For the Moon to pass through the phases of its monthly cycle where its surface is less and less visible.

  4. 4

    Said of a time period that comes to an end.

  5. 5

    archaicTo decrease physically in size, amount, numbers or surface.

  6. 6

    obsoleteTo cause to decrease.

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

Wane in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchdéclin (gradual diminution), flache (rounded corner), décliner (to progressively lose its splendor, value…), décroître (of the Moon, to become less visible)
Spanishmenguar, amenguar (to progressively lose its splendor, value…), menguante de la Luna (lunar phase)
GermanFehlkante (rounded corner), schwinden (to progressively lose its splendor, value…), abnehmen (of the Moon, to become less visible), schrumpfen (to decrease physically in size, amount, numbers…)
Portugueseminguar (of the Moon, to become less visible)

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 wane come from?

From Middle English wane, from Old English wana (“defect, shortage”), from Proto-West Germanic *wanō, from Proto-Germanic *wanô, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- (“to leave, abandon; empty, deserted”).

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

What to look up after wane