wave

WAYV/weɪv/

Pluralwaves

Verbwaves, waving, waved

Often confused with waive

20 meanings of wave

Practice

1
ocean rollnouncountable
A moving disturbance in the surface level of a body of water, rising and falling as it travels along.
Like the rolling humps that travel down a bedsheet when you shake it out.
A rogue wave struck the side of the ship without warning.
The waves grew taller as the storm moved closer to shore.
UsageWaves break on or crash against the shore, and people swim or surf in the waves.
Similarbreaker, roller, swell, billow
Note
In verse a single wave quickly becomes elemental, as in Poe's "pitiless wave." The old reach from billow to sea survives in the poetic "ocean" use.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Poe used the exact phrase “pitiless wave” in verse. en.wikisource.org
Wave retains a poetic sense meaning the ocean. en.wiktionary.org
2
greet someoneverbintransitive
To move one's hand back and forth, usually raised, as a gesture of greeting or farewell.
He waved to the crowd as he stepped onto the stage.
Passengers wave from the deck as the ferry leaves the harbor.
UsageYou wave to or wave at someone.
Similargesture
3
sudden burstnounfigurativelycountable
A sudden but temporary rise in the amount or intensity of something.
A wave of nostalgia hit her when the old song played.
The city faced a sudden wave of flu cases this winter.
UsageUsually a wave of + noun: a wave of nostalgia. Wave after wave means one after another.
Similarrush
Note
Rush is the nearest synonym, but a rush is quick and single. A wave swells, peaks and passes, and another may follow it.
4
energy ripplenouncountable
A disturbance or oscillation that travels through a medium such as air, water, or rock, or through empty space, carrying energy from place to place.
An electromagnetic wave can travel through the vacuum of space.
Seismic waves spread outward from the point where the fault slipped.
UsageCommon in compounds: sound waves, radio waves, shock wave.
Note
Physics lifts the picture off the water: what travels is energy, through air, rock, or a field, and no liquid need be present. An electromagnetic wave crosses empty space, and gravitational waves were predicted about a century before anyone could detect them. The verb follows the same abstraction in the "undergo wave motion" use, where a physicist can ask what, in an electron, is doing the waving.
5
pop culturenounfigurativelycountable
A movement or trend that spreads through and shapes popular culture.
Grunge was the wave that defined the look and sound of the early nineties.
A fresh wave of street fashion emerged from the city's youth.
UsageSome established names use capitals, such as the French New Wave and the Korean Wave.
Similartrend, surge, movement, boom
Note
It is a close cousin of the sudden-surge meaning. The difference is that a cultural wave leaves a style behind, not just a spike.
6
swing somethingverbtransitive
To cause something to move back and forth repeatedly, typically with the hand.
The referee waved a red card above his head.
Fans wave banners whenever their team scores.
UsageThe thing moved is the object: wave a flag, wave your arms. Waive, to give up a right or fee, is a different word.
Similarbrandish, flourish, flap, shake
7
a hand gesturenouncountable
A loose back-and-forth motion, such as the one made by a hand in greeting.
A single wave of her hand was enough to quiet the room.
He answered with a lazy wave and went back to his book.
UsageYou give someone a wave, often a wave of the hand.
Similargesture, flick, flourish, signal
8
signalverbmetonymicallytransitive
To call someone's attention, give them a direction or command, or convey a message by a waving motion, typically of the hand.
The referee waved play on after a brief pause.
Officers wave drivers through the checkpoint when their papers are in order.
UsageTakes a message or a person plus a direction: wave goodbye, wave drivers through, wave someone over.
Similarsignal, direct, motion, beckon
Note
Here the gesture carries a message, and English lets the message stand as the object: wave goodbye, or Tennyson's "bowing waved / Dismissal." The verb also takes a person plus a direction. In Hamlet the ghost waves him "to a more removed ground," and a referee waves play on. The hand is only the means; what follows the verb is what the wave says.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Tennyson uses the words “bowing waved / Dismissal” in The Princess. gutenberg.org
In Hamlet, the ghost gestures for Hamlet to follow to a more secluded place; Marcellus describes this using the quoted words. gutenberg.org
9
flutterverbintransitive
To move loosely back and forth or up and down with a swaying or rippling motion, as something held at one end or carried on the air.
Banners wave above the stadium entrance on game day.
The wheat waved in long ripples as the wind passed over it.
Similarflutter, sway, ripple, flap, billow
Note
Here the thing moves on its own: a flag waves in the breeze, saltires wave aloft over a rugby crowd.
10
curved linenouncountable
An outline that curves first one way and then the other in a repeating pattern.
She signs her name with a loopy flourish that ends in a little wave.
A decorative wave borders the edge of the plate.
Similarundulation, curve, squiggle
11
game enemiesnouncountable
One of the successive groups of enemies that a game sends to attack the player.
The boss appeared only after we cleared the tenth wave.
Players earn bonus points for finishing a wave without taking damage.
Similarround
Note
The game sense extends the image of attackers arriving in successive lines. Waves are numbered and cleared in turn, so a boss might appear after the tenth. Each one tends to press harder. In Raffaele Cecco's account of a JavaScript shooter, every new wave of 55 aliens begins lower than the one before.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
The gaming sense is a figurative extension involving successive groups of attackers. en.wiktionary.org
Raffaele Cecco discusses a JavaScript shooter. oreilly.com
Cecco describes waves of 55 aliens, with each subsequent wave starting lower. en.wiktionary.org

Less common meanings

12
style into curlsverbtransitive
To style hair so as to give it a wavy texture.
The salon waved her long hair into soft curls.
Some people wave their hair instead of straightening it.
Similarcurl, crimp, perm
Oppositestraighten
13
form curvesverbintransitive
To have, or give something, an undulating form with a series of smooth curves or ripples.
The grain of the polished wood waves across the tabletop.
Her hair is straight on top, but the ends wave gently near her shoulders.
Similarcurl, ripple, undulate
14
stadium crowdnouncountable
A coordinated crowd action in which people in successive sections stand and raise their arms, then sit, sending a ripple around the arena.
A wave swept around the arena during the seventh-inning stretch.
The crowd launched into the wave the moment the home team scored.
UsageUsed with the: crowds do the wave, start the wave.
Note
The name borrows from the wave on water. No one moves sideways, yet the rise and fall of each section makes a crest seem to run around the stadium.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
The crowd-action name draws on the image of a water wave. en.wiktionary.org
Participants stay at their seats while their successive movements create an apparently travelling wave. en.wikipedia.org
15
vibrate (field)verbintransitive
Of a medium or field, to oscillate or undergo wave motion as a wave passes through it.
If light is a wave, physicists asked, what exactly in empty space can wave?
As the ripple passes, the water at each spot waves up and down but does not travel with it.
16
miss (baseball)verbintransitive
In baseball, to swing at a pitch and miss it entirely.
The slugger waved helplessly at a slider in the dirt.
Hitters wave at his changeup all night long.
UsageUsed with at: wave at a pitch, often helplessly.
Similarwhiff
Note
Baseball's word for a swing that finds nothing but air. The bat passes loosely through empty space, much as a hand does in the plain swaying sense. That is why the verb often comes with helplessly when a pitch has fooled the hitter.
17
warehouse batchnouncountable
A set of orders scheduled to be fulfilled together within one short interval, as part of wave picking.
The team released the afternoon wave to the pickers at noon.
Each wave is timed to match outgoing truck departures.
Similarbatch
Note
A warehouse term that belongs to wave picking. Orders are grouped and released in batches, and each batch, or wave, is meant to be picked within one short interval. Staff speak of releasing a wave or of the afternoon wave. Wave names the batch; wave picking names the method that schedules it.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Wave picking groups orders for fulfillment and releases the groups as waves. docs.oracle.com
Orders in a wave are assigned to a short picking interval. support.sgsystemsglobal.com
18
sea (in poems)nounliterary
The sea or ocean, considered as a whole.
Similarsea, ocean, deep, main
Oppositeland
Note
A poet's singular for the whole sea, usually with the: Fiona Macleod's dead lie "beneath the green wave." The plural lives on in a fixed phrase of power, ruling the waves, which Kim Darroch still uses in 2024 about the Red Sea.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Fiona Macleod uses the words “beneath the green wave” of the dead in “The Sin-Eater”; the speaker is Sheen Macarthur. gutenberg.org
Kim Darroch uses “rules the waves” in a 2024 article about the Red Sea. theguardian.com
19
verbobsoleteintransitive
To fluctuate or waver, remaining in an unsettled state.
He waved indifferently 'twixt doing them neither good nor harm.
c. 1608, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”
Note
A sense of the mind rather than the hand. It continues the Old English meaning behind the loose swaying sense, in which to wave was also to waver. In Shakespeare's Coriolanus, an officer says that if Coriolanus did not care for the people's love, he "waved indifferently 'twixt doing them neither good nor harm."
20
noun
Any of several geometrid moths of the subfamily Sterrhinae, marked by wavy patterns across the wings.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of wave apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 2, 6, 8–9, 12–13, 16, 19

The Proto-Indo-European root *webʰ-, meaning to move back and forth or wander, led to Proto-Germanic *wabōną or *wabjaną, meaning "to sway" or "to wander," and to Old English wafian, which meant "to wave, fluctuate, waver in mind." That became Middle English waven. German wabern ("to waft") and Icelandic váfa ("to fluctuate, waver") are related.

Meanings 1, 3–5, 7, 10–11, 14–15, 17–18

The Middle English noun *wave has two sources. One is the verb waven ("to fluctuate, wave"). The other is Middle English wawe or waghe, "wave," which came from Old English wǣg ("billow, wave, sea") and goes back through Proto-Germanic *wēgaz ("motion, storm, wave") to Proto-Indo-European *weǵʰ- ("to drag, carry"). German Woge and French vague, a Germanic loan, are cognates.