waning
/ˈweɪ.nɪŋ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.05 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Of the lunar phase: as it shrinks when viewed from the Earth.
Example Sentences
- "my waning patience"
- "the waning moon"
- "the waning of her energy"
- "And boyhood is a summer sun Whose waning is the dreariest one — For all we live to know is known And all we seek to keep hath flown — […]"
- "Soothed again, but only soothed to deeper gloom, Ahab, who had sterned off from the whale, sat intently watching his final wanings from the now tranquil boat."
- "17th century, Joseph Hall, Epistle to Mr. R. B. This earthly moon, the Church, hath her fulls and wanings, and sometimes her eclipses."
Etymology
From Middle English waninge, alteration of earlier waniand, waniende, from Old English waniende, from Proto-Germanic *wanōndz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *wanōną (“to wane”), equivalent to wane + -ing.