wage

American  

[weyj] / weɪdʒ /

noun

• wages
  plural

1. Often wages. money that is paid or received for work or services, as by the hour, day, or week.

   Synonyms:

   remuneration, compensation, emolument, earnings

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

3. (used with a singular or plural verb) Usually wages. recompense or return.

   The wages of sin is death.

4. Obsolete. a pledge or security.

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verb (used with object)

• wages,
  present (3rd person singular)
• waged,
  past participle,  past
• waging
  present participle

1. to carry on (a battle, war, conflict, argument, etc.).

   to wage war against a nation.

   Synonyms:

   prosecute, undertake

2. Chiefly British Dialect. to hire.

3. Obsolete.

   1. to stake or wager.

   2. to pledge.

verb (used without object)

• wages,
  present (3rd person singular)
• waged,
  past participle,  past
• waging
  present participle

1. Obsolete. to contend; struggle.

wage British  

/ weɪdʒ /

noun

1. 1. (often plural) payment in return for work or services, esp that made to workmen on a daily, hourly, weekly, or piece-work basis Compare salary

   2. ( as modifier )

      wage freeze

2. (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

3. (often plural) recompense, return, or yield

4. an obsolete word for pledge

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verb

1. to engage in

2. obsolete to pledge or wager

3. archaic another word for hire hire

Synonym Usage

See pay ¹.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• underwage
  noun
• wagelessness
  noun
• wageless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• wages
  plural

Participles

• waging
  present
• waged
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• wage
  simple
• wages
  simple
• have waged
  perfect
• has waged
  perfect
• am waging
  progressive
• are waging
  progressive
• is waging
  progressive
• have been waging
  perfect progressive
• has been waging
  perfect progressive

Past

• waged
  simple
• had waged
  perfect
• was waging
  progressive
• were waging
  progressive
• had been waging
  perfect progressive

Future

• will wage
  simple
• will have waged
  perfect
• will be waging
  progressive
• will have been waging
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of wage

First recorded in 1275–1325; (noun) Middle English: “pledge, security,” from Anglo-French; Old French guage gage ¹, 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

Explanation

If your job pays a good wage, it means that you earn a lot of money for the hard work you do. If you're not happy with your wage, you might have to wage war on your boss. Wage is one of those words whose verb and noun forms have entirely different meanings. A worker's wage is how much money she makes. But when you wage something, you carry it out: for example, a warmonger is someone whose primary goal is to wage wars. The word is of Germanic origin, and it's related to both gage and wed, with their underlying meanings of "to pledge."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

wage wages waged waging

After accelerating the month before, wage growth in July cooled.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

He has continued this crusade, recently endorsing a $20 minimum wage and speaking out against the proposed Paramount-Warner Bros.

From Salon ● Aug. 6, 2026

Though Disney has not proposed an immediate wage increase, the company is continuing to provide annual increases to union workers as negotiations progress, Jakary said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026

But house prices have risen significantly since, outstripping wage rises most of the time.

From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2026

The exposition’s union carpenters, aware of their great value in this final phase of construction, seized the moment and walked off the job, demanding a minimum union wage and other long-sought concessions.

From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson

If labor becomes really hard to find, however, and if companies decide they need to hire lots of new workers to keep pace with a growing economy, wages should begin to rise.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 6, 2026

In California, unused vacation hours are considered wages and, while employers can’t enforce a “use it or lose it” policy, they can set caps on how much vacation an employee is allowed to accrue.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026

Insiders have told BBC Sport that Spurs knew they had to be both aggressive and quick, with the first quality likely extending to fees, wages and De Zerbi's personal involvement in courting players.

From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026

It also alleges Amazon maintained policies that effectively prevented drivers from moving between delivery contractors, limiting competition for labor and keeping wages below competitive levels.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

“How about fair wages to clean up the village? It’d help out a few of us, at any rate.”

From "Willodeen" by Katherine Applegate

A historically nomadic people, Tuaregs, who are spread across Mali, Niger, Algeria, Libya and Burkina Faso, have waged an armed struggle for decades against marginalisation, with action centred in particular around Kidal.

From Barron's ● Jul. 4, 2026

The American bookmaker then alleged in a book published after his release that Mickelson had waged a billion dollars in sporting bets.

From BBC ● Jun. 12, 2026

This is why the nation’s founders instituted religious freedom — they witnessed how Europe was torn apart by wars waged between different flavors of Christianity.

From Salon ● Jun. 10, 2026

The accusation that voicing criticism of a campaign waged on flawed assumptions and fanciful expectations means rooting for the enemy is repugnant.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 25, 2026

More exactly, the reasons for which war is waged have changed in their order of importance.

From "1984" by George Orwell

Before long, Anthropic’s growth rate surged past OpenAI’s, as did its valuation—and OpenAI found itself waging two separate battles as its lead in the AI race came under siege.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026

At one point, Weist describes uncovering that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani maintained a fine-art photography practice while simultaneously waging a highly public censorship battle against the Brooklyn Museum.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 7, 2026

As his raw dairy grew, McAfee portrayed himself as an underdog waging a war against industrialized food.

From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026

The U.S. has been waging a “war” on screwworm, U.S.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 10, 2026

Even as Bobby was waging a secondary battle against cameras in Reykjavik, cameras in New York were televising his epic struggle on the board.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady