Waning

//ˈweɪ.nɪŋ// adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The fact or act of becoming less or less intense or present; fading.

    "the waning of her energy"

  2. 2
    a gradual decrease in magnitude or extent wordnet
  3. 3
    The fact or act of becoming smaller.

    "17th century, Joseph Hall, Epistle to Mr. R. B. This earthly moon, the Church, hath her fulls and wanings, and sometimes her eclipses."

Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of wane form-of, gerund, participle, present
Adjective
  1. 1
    Becoming weaker or smaller. not-comparable

    "my patience is waning"

  2. 2
    Of the lunar phase: as it shrinks when viewed from the Earth. not-comparable

    "the waning moon"

Adjective
  1. 1
    (of the Moon) pertaining to the period during which the visible surface of the moon decreases wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
agingancientat restcalmcessationcloistered

Antonyms

All antonyms
waxing

Example

More examples

"The eruption seems to be waning."

Etymology

Etymology 1

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.

Etymology 2

From Middle English waning, waninge, wonunge, from Old English wanung (“waning; diminution”), from Proto-Germanic *wanungō, equivalent to wane + -ing.

Related phrases

waning gibbouswaning moonlunar phase

More for "waning"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.