What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Waning vs Wan - What's the difference?

waning | wan |

As an adjective waning

is becoming weaker or smaller.

As a noun waning

is the fact or act of becoming less or less intense.

As a verb waning

is .

waning

English

Adjective

(-)
  • Becoming weaker or smaller.
  • his waning strength
  • Especially of the lunar phase as it shrinks when viewed from the Earth.
  • the waning moon

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The fact or act of becoming less or less intense.
  • the waning of her energy
  • The fact or act of becoming smaller.
  • * Bishop Hall
  • This earthly moon, the Church, hath fulls and wanings , and sometimes her eclipses.

    Verb

    (head)
  • Anagrams

    * awning ----

    wan

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl), from (etyl) .

    Adjective

    (wanner)
  • Pale, sickly-looking.
  • * Spenser
  • Sad to view, his visage pale and wan .
  • * Longfellow
  • the wan moon overhead
  • * {{quote-book
  • , year=1921 , year_published=2012 , edition=HTML , editor= , author=Edgar Rice Burrows , title=The Efficiency Expert , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher=The Gutenberg Project , isbn= , page= , passage=She looked wan and worried, ... }}
  • Dim, faint.
  • * {{quote-book, passage=’twas so far away, that evil day when I prayed to the Prince of Gloom / For the savage strength and the sullen length of life to work his doom. / Nor sign nor word had I seen or heard, and it happed so long ago; / My youth was gone and my memory wan , and I willed it even so.
  • , title=(Ballads of a Cheechako) , chapter=(The Ballad of One-Eyed Mike) , author=Robert W. Service , year=1909}}
  • Bland, uninterested.
  • A wan expression

    Noun

    (-)
  • The quality of being wan; wanness.
  • * Tennyson
  • Tinged with wan from lack of sleep.

    Etymology 2

    Inflected forms.

    Verb

    (head)
  • (obsolete) (win)
  • Anagrams

    * ----