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say it: wayv
wave is a noun and verb meaning "one of a series of ridges that moves across the surface of a liquid (especially across a large body of water)". It carries 14 recorded senses.
a movement like that of a sudden occurrence or increase in a specified phenomenon
“a wave of settlers”
“troops advancing in waves”
something that rises rapidly
“a wave of emotion swept over him”
“there was a sudden wave of buying before the market closed”
“a wave of conservatism in the country led by the hard right”
a hairdo that creates undulations in the hair
an undulating curve
a persistent and widespread unusual weather condition (especially of unusual temperatures)
“a heat wave”
signal with the hands or nod
“She waved to her friends”
“He waved his hand hospitably”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for wave come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.