wage

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. 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.
verb
  1. To wager, bet.
  2. To expose oneself to, as a risk; to incur, as a danger; to venture; to hazard.
  3. To employ for wages; to hire.
  4. To conduct or carry out (a war or other contest).
  5. To adventure, or lay out, for hire or reward; to hire out.
  6. To give security for the performance of.

Pronunciation

/weɪd͡ʒ/ en-us-wage.ogg

Word forms

wage wages waging waged

Etymology

From Middle English wage, from Anglo-Norman wage, from Old Northern French wage, a northern variant of Old French gauge, guage (whence modern French gage), Medieval Latin wadium, from Frankish *waddī (cognate with Old English wedd), from Proto-Germanic *wadją (“pledge”), from Proto-Indo-European *wedʰ- (“to pledge, redeem a pledge”). Akin to Old Norse veðja (“to pledge”), Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌳𐌹 (wadi), Dutch wedde. Compare also the doublet gage. More at wed.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.