waste away
"waste-away" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“waste away” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To lose energy or become weak and feeble.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | waste away |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “waste away” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
waste away is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To lose energy or become weak and feeble.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for waste away, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is waste away, spelled W-A-S-T-E- -A-W-A-Y.
Definition
- 1To lose energy or become weak and feeble.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “waste away”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-A-S-T-E- -A-W-A-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.