Wordul · all words

verb · 1 syllable · /weɪst/

WASTE

What does "WASTE" mean?

To use carelessly or fail to use something to good effect.

Meanings

  1. To use or expend carelessly, extravagantly, or to no purpose. Don't waste water during the drought.
  2. Unwanted or unusable material left over from a process; refuse. The factory pipes its waste into a treatment plant.
  3. A barren, uninhabited, or devastated region. Beyond the fence lay a frozen waste of ice and rock. literary
  4. Discarded as no longer useful; left over. Waste paper piled up beside the printer.

Did you know?

  • 'Waste' and 'vast' are etymological twins: both trace back to the Latin 'vastus', meaning empty or desolate - a wasteland and a vast plain were once the same idea.

Word origin

From Anglo-Norman 'waster' and Latin 'vastare' (to lay waste, devastate), from 'vastus' (empty, desolate) - the same root as 'vast'.

A little poem

Tap left running clear -
the river you will not drink
leaving down the drain.

haiku

Wordplay

  • I spent all afternoon organizing my recycling bin. My partner called it a waste of time. I said no - it's a time of waste.

What it teaches

Waste is rarely the thing thrown out; it's the use you never got around to.

Quick facts

What does WASTE mean?

To use carelessly or fail to use something to good effect.

Is WASTE a valid word?

Yes — WASTE is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.

How many letters is WASTE?

WASTE has 5 letters and 1 syllable.

Where does WASTE come from?

From Anglo-Norman 'waster' and Latin 'vastare' (to lay waste, devastate), from 'vastus' (empty, desolate) - the same root as 'vast'.

What can WASTE teach us?

Waste is rarely the thing thrown out; it's the use you never got around to.

How players do

Be the first to solve it.

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