Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell wave

hear itwave/weɪv/nounSounds

What it means: A movement of the hand to say hello or goodbye.

In a sentence: She gave a friendly wave to say hello.

The part people get wrong

Often misspelled as waiv or wvae.

Same family: waves, waved, waving, waver, wavy. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: Wave comes from Old English "wafian," meaning to move to and fro or fluctuate. The same root also led to the noun "wave" for moving water and to the idea of "waves" in physics, like sound and light waves.

Patterns it uses: Drop the e before a suffix?

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