Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell waste

hear itwaste/weɪst/verbRules and real life

What it means: To use something carelessly or without need.

In a sentence: Do not waste your food; finish what's on your plate!

The part people get wrong

Often misspelled as waist or wast.

Sounds like, but is not: waist. Same sound, different spelling and meaning.

Same family: wasting, wasted, wastage, waste away, wasteful. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: The verb "waste" comes from Old French "waster," meaning to ruin or lay waste, and is related to a Latin word for being empty or desolate. Over time, English added the medical sense of the body or muscles "wasting away" when they become thin and weak.

Patterns it uses: Drop the e before a suffix?

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