Meaning & use
wage
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Meanings
nouncountable
Money paid to a worker for their work, often calculated by hours or days.
Grammar: Often wages in the plural, or a wage with an adjective: a good wage.
Patterns
- a wage of something
- earn a wage
He earns a fair wage as a delivery driver.
The union asked for higher wages.
Her wage is paid every Friday.
verbtransitiveformal
To carry on a war, campaign or fight over a period of time.
Grammar: Always takes an object like war or campaign: wage a campaign.
Patterns
- wage war on something
- wage a campaign against something
The city waged war on litter for years.
Doctors are waging a campaign against smoking.
The two countries waged a long conflict over the border.
Word forms
| plural | wages |
|---|---|
| third person singular | wages |
| past tense | waged |
| past participle | waged |
| -ing form | waging |
Common combinations
- minimum wage
- The minimum wage rose again this year.
- living wage
- A living wage covers basic costs.
- hourly wage
- The job pays an hourly wage of fifteen dollars.
- wage war
- The group waged war on poverty.
- wage a campaign
- They waged a campaign to save the library.
- wage gap
- The wage gap between the two roles is large.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
- wager noun
- a bet, from the same old root
- wage earner noun
- a person who works for wages
- waged adjective
- paid for work
- unwaged adjective
- not receiving pay
Commonly confused: wage or wedge?
wage vs wedge
A wedge is a V-shaped piece used to split or hold things, and it is different from wage in both sound and meaning.
Practice
The government plans to ___ a campaign against illegal dumping this year.
Choose one answer.
Wage is the verb used with campaign or war. Pay and earn do not take campaign in this sense.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “wage”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.