wane
/weɪn/
"wane" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“wane” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #36,009. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #36,009
- frequency rank, English
- 1,759
- “W” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 2, 2026) - A gradual diminution in power, value, intensity etc.
Corpus desk
Index EN-wane · wane · English
wane · rank #36,009 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #36,009
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,759
- PHOTO-FINISH volition
Nearest frequency peer: volition (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “wane”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- untrustwort…
untrustworthy
63,997 corpus weight
- Unwin
Unwin
63,996 corpus weight
- Vilnius
Vilnius
63,994 corpus weight
- volition
volition
63,993 corpus weight
- wane
wane
63,992 corpus weight
- whittle
whittle
63,989 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “wane” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | wane |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /weɪn/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #36,009 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “wane” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around wane (IPA /weɪn/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #36,009 among 1,759 “W” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for wane, with forms such as "awne", "waen", and "wanne". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "we", "was", "way", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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”). Cognates See also wan-, want, and waste. Compare also … The correct English form is wane, spelled W-A-N-E.
Definition
- 1A gradual diminution in power, value, intensity etc.
- 2The lunar phase during which the sun seems to illuminate less of the moon as its sunlit area becomes progressively smaller as visible from Earth.
- 3The end of a period.
- 4A rounded corner caused by lack of wood, often showing bark.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how wane appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
1853, Herman Melville, "Bartleby, the Scrivener," in Billy Budd, Sailor and Other Stories, New York: Penguin, 1968; reprinted 1995 as Bartleby, →ISBN, p. 3, In the morning, one might say, his face was of a fine florid hue, but after twelve o'clock, meridian -- his dinner hour -- it blazed like a grate full of Christmas coals; and continued blazing -- but,…
1913, Michael Ott, The Catholic Encyclopedia, "Wenzel Anton Kaunitz", His influence which was on the wane during the reign of Joseph II grew still less during the reign of Leopold II (1790-2).
Etymology
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”). Cognates See also wan-, want, and waste. Compare also Dutch waan (“insanity”) and German Wahn (“insanity”) deprecated defect, Old Norse vanr (“lacking”) ( > Danish prefix van-, only found in compounds), Latin vanus, Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌽𐍃 (wans, “missing, lacking”), Albanian vonë (“late, futile, mentally retarded”), Armenian ունայն (unayn, “empty”), Old Saxon and Old High German wanon (“to decrease”), Modern Dutch weinig (“a few”), Modern German weniger (“less”), comparative of wenig (“few”) (-ig being a derivate suffix; -er the suffix of comparatives). Doublet of vain, vaunt, vaniloquent, vast, vacuum, vacant, vacate, which are Latin-derived, via the PIE root.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- awne
- waen
- wanne
- wnae
- wwane
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of wane - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 2, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "wane", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.