wage

[ weyj ]

/ weɪdʒ /

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See synonyms for: wage / waged / wages / waging on Thesaurus.com

noun

Often wages. money that is paid or received for work or services, as by the hour, day, or week.Compare living wage, minimum wage.

Usually wages. Economics. the share of the products of industry received by labor for its work (as distinct from the share going to capital).

Usually wages. (used with a singular or plural verb) recompense or return: The wages of sin is death.

Obsolete. a pledge or security.

verb (used with object), waged, wag·ing.

to carry on (a battle, war, conflict, argument, etc.): to wage war against a nation.

Chiefly British Dialect. to hire.

Obsolete.

to stake or wager.
to pledge.

verb (used without object), waged, wag·ing.

Obsolete. to contend; struggle.

OTHER WORDS FOR wage

1 earnings, emolument, compensation, remuneration.

5 undertake, prosecute.

See synonyms for wage on Thesaurus.com

QUIZ

THINGAMABOB OR THINGUMMY: CAN YOU DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE US AND UK TERMS IN THIS QUIZ?

Do you know the difference between everyday US and UK terminology? Test yourself with this quiz on words that differ across the Atlantic.

Question 1 of 7

In the UK, COTTON CANDY is more commonly known as…

candystring

candyfloss

candypuff

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Origin of wage

First recorded in 1275–1325; (noun) Middle English: “pledge, security,” from Anglo-French; Old French guagegage¹, from unattested Vulgar Latin wadium, from Germanic (see wed); (verb) Middle English wagen “to pledge,” from Anglo-French wagier;Old French guagier, from unattested Vulgar Latin wadiāre, derivative of wadium

synonym study for wage

1. See pay¹.

OTHER WORDS FROM wage

wageless, adjectivewage·less·ness, nounun·der·wage, noun

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH wage

salary, wages

Words nearby wage

waft, waftage, wafter, wafture, wag, wage, wage determination, wage differential, wage earner, wage incentive, wage-push inflation

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use wage in a sentence

Minimum-wage debates for years have been tempered by warnings that companies would lay off many people to pay higher wages to some.
CBO report finds $15 minimum wage would cost jobs but lower poverty levels|Eli Rosenberg|February 8, 2021|Washington Post
He might have, for example, made it de rigueur for large companies to help employees in entry-level jobs work their way into a solid middle-class life, with strong wages and fair benefits.
Weekend edition—Jeff Bezos’s unfinished business, pandemic-style Super Bowl, emoji capitalism|Susan Howson|February 6, 2021|Quartz
He might have, for example, made Amazon the kind of place that helps employees in entry-level jobs work their way into a solid middle-class life, with strong wages and fair benefits.
The unfinished business Jeff Bezos leaves behind at Amazon|Lila MacLellan|February 3, 2021|Quartz
So higher wages mean higher spending, which means faster economic growth.
What happens after the GameStop bubble bursts?|Peter Kafka|February 2, 2021|Vox

Another league executive said the partnership will have a focus on wage equality for female athletes and that 50 percent of revenue going to the players was a big motivator.
Women’s Hockey Is Seeing A Sponsorship Boom|Marisa Ingemi|January 26, 2021|FiveThirtyEight
He was treated like an immigrant, working for minimum wage, missing his family and having to move on from his musical career.
Cuban Hip-Hop Was Born in Alamar|Daniel Levin|December 26, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Of course, declining or stagnant wage growth started well before this president took office.
Time to Bring Back the Truman Democrats|Joel Kotkin|December 21, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Even public-service lawyering jobs, while underpaid for the field, still pay better than low-wage warehouse labor.
How Amazon Became Santa’s Sweatshop|Sally Kohn|December 11, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The Supreme Court just handed a big holiday present to low-wage workers across America in the form of a giant f*ck you.
How Amazon Became Santa’s Sweatshop|Sally Kohn|December 11, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Who will want to enter this profession for a poverty wage and little or no paid time off?
Care Providers Fight for $15 and a Union|Jasmin Almodovar, Shirley Thompson|December 5, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Cincinnatus will not back to his plow, or, at the best, stands sullenly between his plow-handles arguing for a higher wage.
The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice|Stephen Leacock
If the high wage is paid and the short hours are granted, then the price of the thing made, so it seems, rises higher still.
The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice|Stephen Leacock
The single employer rightly knows that there is a wage higher than he can pay and hours shorter than he can grant.
The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice|Stephen Leacock
They wage war as a tribe on account of wrongs done to a private individual.
The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. II: Acadia, 1612-1614|Various
The minimum wage law ought to form, in one fashion or another, a part of the code of every community.
The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice|Stephen Leacock

British Dictionary definitions for wage

wage

/ (weɪdʒ) /

noun

(often plural) payment in return for work or services, esp that made to workmen on a daily, hourly, weekly, or piece-work basisCompare salary
(as modifier)wage freeze

(plural) economics the portion of the national income accruing to labour as earned income, as contrasted with the unearned income accruing to capital in the form of rent, interest, and dividends

(often plural) recompense, return, or yield

an obsolete word for pledge

verb (tr)

to engage in

obsolete to pledge or wager

archaic another word for hire (def. 1), hire (def. 2)

Derived forms of wage

wageless, adjectivewagelessness, noun

Word Origin for wage

C14: from Old Northern French wagier to pledge, from wage, of Germanic origin; compare Old English weddian to pledge, wed

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

wage

OTHER WORDS FOR wage

Origin of wage

synonym study for wage

OTHER WORDS FROM wage

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH wage

Words nearby wage

Words related to wage

How to use wage in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for wage

Derived forms of wage

Word Origin for wage