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wage

verb · noun

Simple meaning

To conduct or carry out.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

wayj
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈweɪdʒ

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. Carry on (wars, battles, or campaigns)

    “Napoleon and Hitler waged war against all of Europe.”

  2. transitive

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

  3. transitive

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

noun

  1. often in plural

    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.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Carry on (wars, battles, or campaigns)

Used this way, wage is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Heard in a sentence
“Napoleon and Hitler waged war against all of Europe.”
Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use wage

  • “Napoleon and Hitler waged war against all of Europe.”verb
  • “Wages were paid by check.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Money

hourly wagemoney wage

Employ

wage earner

Other combinations

living wagewage laborwage ratewage labourwage structure

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • wagesnounPlural form

    A recompense for worthy acts or retribution for wrongdoing.

  • wagernounInflected form

    The act of gambling.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • wage earnernounCompound term

    Someone who earn wages in return for their labor.

  • wage floornounCompound term

    Floor below which wages are not allowed to fall.

  • wage freezenounCompound term

    A freeze of wages at a given level.

  • wage hikenounCompound term

    The amount a salary is increased.

  • wage increasenounCompound term

    The amount a salary is increased.

  • wage scalenounCompound term

    A schedule of wages paid for different jobs.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: amount of money paid to a worker for a specified quantity of work

salarypayearningsremuneration

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.