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waiter

noun · verb

Simple meaning

Someone who waits or awaits.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

wayter

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈweɪtɚ

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.

noun

  1. A person who waits or awaits

  2. Someone who waits for somebody or something; a person who is waiting.

  3. A male or female attendant who serves customers at their tables in a restaurant, café or similar.

verb

  1. stative

    To work as a waiter.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced
Frequency
Uncommon
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A male or female attendant who serves customers at their tables in a restaurant, café or similar.

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

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

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

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

wine waiterhead waiteryoung waiterpassing waiter

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • waitverbBase word

    Stay in one place and anticipate or expect something.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • wine waiternounCompound term

    A waiter who manages wine service in a hotel or restaurant.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • waitressnounRelated term

    A woman waiter.

  • waiter's assistantnounRelated term

    A restaurant attendant who sets tables and assists waiters and clears away dirty dishes.

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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.