Make Your Point > Archived Issues > WAX and WANE
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pronounce
WAX and WANE:
Say these just like they're spelled: "WAX" and "WANE."
To hear "WAX," click here.
To hear "WANE," click here.
connect these words to others:
Although we can use the words wax and wane separately--"he waxed poetical;" "her interest waned"--we often pair them, taking advantage of their poetic sound.
The same goes for vim and vigor.
And ebb and flow.
Can you think of any other poetic-sounding pairs? Pairs with alliteration, or rhyme, or repeating patterns of syllables? When you use them, I hope their sounds bring you joy.
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
definition:
Here's the moon waxing, or seeming to grow:
And here's the moon waning, or seeming to shrink:
To wax is to grow: to develop, to increase in size.
To wane is to shrink: to decrease, to get smaller.
We can talk about all kinds of things that wax (increase) and wane (decrease), and when we do, we're hinting that these things are in a natural cycle of slow, gradual growing and shrinking, like the moon.
grammatical bits:
Part of speech:
Verbs, the intransitive kind: "Their energy is waxing;" "Their energy is waning."
Other forms:
Waxed, waxing; waned, waning.
how to use them:
As I mentioned above, we often pair "wax" and "wane," emphasizing how things slowly and naturally increase and decrease.
We talk about all kinds of abstract things that wax and wane, like people's support, patience, interest, appetite, enthusiasm, popularity, etc.
We rarely use the verb "wax" on its own--unless we're talking literally about applying wax to things, like floors to shine them, or body hair to yank it out. Still, you can certainly say that something is waxing: "Support for the idea is waxing in the south;" "Interest in this program is waxing among the middle class." And sometimes, we say that someone "waxes poetical," "waxes lyrical," or "waxes eloquent," meaning they become that way in their speech: "Recalling the days of her youth at summer camp, she waxed poetical."
It's much more common for us to use "wane" by itself: we talk about public support that's waning, a leader's influence that's waning, etc. Another way to express ideas like these is to say that something is "on the wane:" "Her popularity is on the wane."
Occasionally we also talk about waning hours, waning moments, the waning evening, the waning summer and so on, meaning that the period of time is coming to an end, as if it's slowly shrinking, like a little sliver of the moon.
examples:
"The spirit of [William] James moves among all Americans who are disconcerted and unnerved by the absolutism waxing on the right and on the left. James taught that the value of a practice or policy doesn't depend on the authority or movement that promulgates it, nor on the philosophical framework from which it derives. Results matter. The proof is in the pudding."
— David Von Drehle, Washington Post, 19 June 2020
"'The Handmaid’s Tale' earned 44 nominations for its first two seasons, but viewers' appetite for the dystopian drama waned in its third season."
— Glenn Whipp, The Los Angeles Times, 24 June 2020
"The pandemic is waxing and waning in many places, with numbers of cases soaring in Indonesia and India, Brazil and Mexico but appearing to be under control or contained in Thailand, Japan, Vietnam and New Zealand."
— Jill Lawless and Frank Jordans, KOB, 18 June 2020
has this page helped you understand "wax" and "wane"?
study them:
Explain the meaning of "wax" without saying "grow" or "enlarge."
And, explain the meaning of "wane" without saying "shrink" or "subside."
try them out:
Let's check out the following observation from the South China Post, which mentions two things that wax and wane:
"As it currently stands, the US dollar is the most important reserve currency in the world. No other currency comes close to matching its status. Whether other countries like it or not, it is the bedrock of the global financial system. US dollars have to be held. It's the currency that oils the wheels of the global economy... It wasn't always this way, though. As the fortunes of empires and nations have waxed and waned over the centuries, other currencies have filled the same role that the US dollar does today."
So, the importance of the US dollar could wax and wane. And, of course, "the fortunes of empires and nations" wax and wane.
With these examples in mind, talk about something else that waxes and wanes throughout time. (Is it the importance of something else? The fortunes of some other group? The influence of something? The popularity of something?) Talk about what it's like when it's waxing, what it's like when it's waning, and how we can tell, in any given moment, which of the two it's doing.
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
Our game this month is "Faces & Feelings."
If the word you're studying were a facial expression, what would it look like? Maybe one of the seven universal facial expressions, the ones identified by the psychologist Paul Ekman.
In each issue, take a handful of words and assign each to an emotion it inspires. I'll list my answers at the bottom of each issue. Yours might be different from mine, which is okay--words, and emotions, are complex and personal! The goal here is just to interact with our words, to tie them more securely into memory by connecting them to emotion and to the face.
Try this set today. Match each face on the left to a term on the right:
gaffe
gainsay
gauleiter
glut
grace note
gravitas
groupthink
review these words:
1. WAX and WANE are precise opposites, meaning the same thing, respectively, as
A. MAKE and DESTROY.
B. PROVE and DISPROVE.
C. BUILD UP and BREAK DOWN.
2. She _____ the waning light.
A. struggled to distinguish colors in
B. painted in vivid orange tones to suggest
C. kept the canvas completely black to evoke
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
Say these just like they're spelled: "WAX" and "WANE."
Although we can use the words wax and wane separately--"he waxed poetical;" "her interest waned"--we often pair them, taking advantage of their poetic sound.
Here's the moon waxing, or seeming to grow:
Part of speech:
As I mentioned above, we often pair "wax" and "wane," emphasizing how things slowly and naturally increase and decrease.
"The spirit of [William] James moves among all Americans who are disconcerted and unnerved by the absolutism waxing on the right and on the left. James taught that the value of a practice or policy doesn't depend on the authority or movement that promulgates it, nor on the philosophical framework from which it derives. Results matter. The proof is in the pudding."
Explain the meaning of "wax" without saying "grow" or "enlarge."
Let's check out the following observation from the South China Post, which mentions two things that wax and wane:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
1. WAX and WANE are precise opposites, meaning the same thing, respectively, as
|