Way

Pronunciation

• UK enPR: wā, IPA: /weɪ/
• Rhymes: -eɪ
• Homophones: weigh, wey, whey in accents with the wine-whine merger

From Middle English wei, wai, weighe, from Old English weġ, from Proto-Germanic *wegaz, from Proto-Indo-European *weǵʰ-. Cognate with West Frisian wei, Low German Weg, Dutch weg, German Weg, Danish vej, Swedish väg, Latin vehō, via, Albanian udhë.

Alternative forms

• waye obsolete

Full definition of way

Noun

1. To do with a place or places.
1. A road, a direction, a (physical or conceptual) path from one place to another.
   Do you know the way to the airport?
   Come this way and I'll show you a shortcut.
   It's a long way from here.
• John Milton (1608-1674)The way seems difficult, and steep to scale.
• John Evelyn (1620-1706)The season and ways were very improper for his majesty's forces to march so great a distance.
• 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 4, Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days' cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.
• 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 4, I was on my way to the door, but all at once, through the fog in my head, I began to sight one reef that I hadn't paid any attention to afore.
• 2013-06-22, Snakes and ladders, Risk is everywhere....For each one there is a frighteningly precise measurement of just how likely it is to jump from the shadows and get you. “The Norm Chronicles”...aims to help data-phobes find their way through this blizzard of risks.
2. A means to enter or leave a place.
   We got into the cinema through the back way.
• 1963, Margery Allingham, The China Governess Chapter 14, Just under the ceiling there were three lunette windows, heavily barred and blacked out in the normal way by centuries of grime. Their bases were on a level with the pavement outside, a narrow way which was several feet lower than the road behind the house.
3. A roughly-defined geographical area.
   If you're ever 'round this way, come over and visit me.
4. A method or manner of doing something; a mannerism.
   You're going about it the wrong way.   He's known for his quirky ways.   I don't like the way she looks at me.
• 1913, w, Lord Stranleigh Abroad Chapter 4, “… That woman is stark mad, Lord Stranleigh....If she had her way, she’d ruin the company inside a year with her hare-brained schemes ; love of the people, and that sort of guff.”
• 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 2, She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, …; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid, â€¦—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.
• 1959, Georgette Heyer, The Unknown Ajax Chapter 1, ...his lordship was out of humour. That was the way Chollacombe described as knaggy an old gager as ever Charles had had the ill-fortune to serve. Stiff-rumped, that's what he was, always rubbing the rust, or riding grub, like he had been for months past.
• 2013-06-01, A better waterworks, An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine.
5. Personal interaction.
1. Possibility (usually in the phrases 'any way' and 'no way').
   There's no way I'm going to clean up after you.
2. Determined course; resolved mode of action or conduct.
   My little sister always whines until she gets her way.
6. (paganism) A tradition within the modern pagan faith of Heathenry, dedication to a specific deity or craft, Way of wyrd, Way of runes, Way of Thor etc.
7. (nautical) Speed, progress, momentum.
• 1977, Richard O'Kane, Clear the Bridge: The War Patrols of the U.S.S. Tang, Ballantine Books (2003), page 343:Ten minutes into the run Tang slowed, Welch calling out her speed as she lost way.
8. A degree, an amount, a sense.
   In a large way, crocodiles and alligators are similar.
• 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 8, That concertina was a wonder in its way. The handles that was on it first was wore out long ago, and he'd made new ones of braided rope yarn. And the bellows was patched in more places than a cranberry picker's overalls.
9. (As the head of an interjectory clause) Acknowledges that a task has been done well, chiefly in expressions of sarcastic congratulation.
   Way to ruin the moment, guys.
• 2001, Joshua Nedelman, The Garden of Eastern, Jimmy leaned forward holding his ear, the personification of naïveté, looking as young as a baby with his oh-so-innocent face. “Oh, way to get us busted, Jimmy,” Curt hissed under his breath.
• 2009, Linda Winfree, Fall in Me, Oh, way to start a rumor, Hope. Angel glared the silent statement at her sister.
• 2012, Nancy Manther, A Charmed Life, "Oh, way to care about how I feel." His voice took on an exaggerated “Valley Girl” tone.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Interjection

1. (only in reply to no way) It is true.
• 2011, William Schwenn, Dogs of Meadowbrook, We repeated this ritual of “no way - way, no way - way” over the years.

Verb

1. (obsolete) To travel.
• 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.ii:on a time as they together way'd,
  He made him open chalenge ....

Apheresis of away.

Alternative forms

• 'way dated

Adverb

1. (informal, with comparative or modified adjective) Much.I'm way too tired to do that.I'm a way better singer than she.
• 2006, Keyboard Magazine, Volume 32, Issues 1-6, page 132,It turns out that's way more gain than you need for a keyboard, but you don't have to use all of it to benefit from the sonic characteristics.
2. (slang, with positive adjective) Very.I'm way tiredString theory is way cool, except for the math.
• 2005, Erika V. Shearin Karres, Crushes, Flirts, & Friends: A Real Girl's Guide to Boy Smarts, page 16,With all the way cool boys out there, what if you don't recognize them because you don't know what to look for? Or, what if you have a chance to pick a perfect Prince and you end up with a yucky Frog instead?
3. (informal) Far.I used to live way over there.The farmhouse is way down the bottom of the hill.

Synonyms

• (much) far, much, loads
• (very) so, very

From the sound it represents, by analogy with other velar letters such as kay and gay.

Noun

1. The name of the letter for the w sound in Pitman shorthand.

Related terms

• double-u, the name of the Latin letter for this sound

Anagrams

• yaw