What does "wax" mean?
Beeswax.
Wax
/wæks/ adj, name, noun, verb, slang
adj, name, noun, verb, slang ·Very common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: Beeswax.
- Grammar: wax is listed as adj, name, noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: abrasive, accrue, accumulate, advance.
- Useful contrasts: decrease, diminish, ebbing.
- Usage evidence: Burning the candle at both ends reduces the candle to wax in a hurry - just like a playboy having a pretty girl on each arm.
How to use "wax"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "wax" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "wax" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "wax" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "wax" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "wax" is acting as adj, name, noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "abrasive" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "wax", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Beeswax. countable, uncountable
- 2 The process of growing. rare, uncountable
- 3 An outburst of anger, a loss of temper, a fit of rage. colloquial, dated
"father Arnall's face looked very black but he was not in a wax: he was laughing."
- 4 any of various substances of either mineral origin or plant or animal origin; they are solid at normal temperatures and insoluble in water wordnet
- 5 Earwax. countable, uncountable
"What role does the wax in your earhole fulfill?"
Show 5 more definitions
- 6 Any oily, water-resistant, solid or semisolid substance; normally long-chain hydrocarbons, alcohols or esters. countable, uncountable
- 7 Any preparation containing wax, used as a polish. countable, uncountable
- 8 The phonograph record format for music. informal, uncountable
"What really started the corn sprouting on Broadway was a lugubrious tune by Louisiana's Jimmie Davis called It Makes No Difference Now. In the late '30s Decca's Recording Chief David Kapp heard this Texas hit and got it on wax."
- 9 A thick syrup made by boiling down the sap of the sugar maple and then cooling it. US, countable, dialectal, uncountable
- 10 Any of a class of drugs with weed oil and butane as main ingredients; hash oil. US, countable, slang, uncountable
"He was charged with two felonies, for possession of Xanax and wax."
Verb
- 1 To coat with wax or a similar material. transitive
"waxed silk"
- 2 To apply wax to (something, such as a shoe, a floor, a car, or an apple), usually to make it shiny. transitive
- 3 To greaten. intransitive, literary
"Holonym: wax and wane"
- 4 go up or advance wordnet
- 5 To form a wax (a thick maple syrup). intransitive
"The syrup is waxing. Come and help yourselves."
Show 9 more definitions
- 6 To remove hair at the roots from (a part of the body) by coating the skin with a film of wax that is then pulled away sharply. transitive
- 7 To increasingly assume the specified characteristic. copulative, intransitive, literary
"Near-synonyms: become, get, go, turn, come, fall, grow"
- 8 increase in phase wordnet
- 9 To defeat utterly. informal, transitive
- 10 To appear larger each night as a progression from a new moon to a full moon. intransitive
- 11 cover with wax wordnet
- 12 To kill, especially to murder a person. slang, transitive
""I was reassigned over from the 9th when the battalion CO got waxed on the road leading in." Ben kept his dismay to himself. Here was one more officer in the 90th who'd been on the job only hours or days, replacing commanders killed or wounded...."
- 13 To move from low tide to high tide. intransitive
- 14 To record. archaic, transitive, usually
Adjective
- 1 Made of wax. not-comparable
"He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own."
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname.
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
"Burning the candle at both ends reduces the candle to wax in a hurry - just like a playboy having a pretty girl on each arm."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "wax"?
Common synonyms include: abrasive, accrue, accumulate, advance, aluminum oxide, ambergris.
How do you use "wax" in a sentence?
Burning the candle at both ends reduces the candle to wax in a hurry - just like a playboy having a pretty girl on each arm.
How do you pronounce "wax"?
Pronounced /wæks/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English wax, from Old English weax, from Proto-Germanic *wahsą, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *woḱ-so-. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Woaks (“wax”), West Frisian waaks (“wax”), Dutch was (“wax”), German Wachs (“wax”), German Low German Wass (“wax”), Luxembourgish Wuess (“wax”), Vilamovian wāhs (“wax”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk voks (“wax”), Faroese vaks (“wax”), Icelandic, Swedish vax (“wax”); and with Lithuanian vaškas (“wax”), Proto-Slavic *voskъ (“wax”).
Etymology 2
From Middle English waxen, from the noun (see above).
Etymology 3
From Middle English waxen, from Old English weaxan (“to wax, grow, be fruitful, increase, become powerful, flourish”), from Proto-West Germanic *wahsan, from Proto-Germanic *wahsijaną (“to grow”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂weg- (“to grow, increase”). Cognate with Scots wax (“to grow”), West Frisian waakse (“to greaten”), Low German wassen, Dutch wassen (“to greaten”), German wachsen (“to greaten”), Danish and Norwegian vokse (“to greaten”), Swedish växa (“to greaten”), Icelandic vaxa (“to greaten”), Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌷𐍃𐌾𐌰𐌽 (wahsjan, “to grow”); and with Ancient Greek ἀέξειν (aéxein), Latin auxilium. It is in its turn cognate with augeo. See eke.
Etymology 4
Uncertain; probably from phrases like to wax angry, wax wode, and similar (see Etymology 2, above).
Etymology 5
* As a German and Jewish surname, variant of Wachs. * As an English surname, from the noun wax, compare Waxman.