Waiver vs. Waver vs. Wafer (Grammar Rules)
Learn when to use waiver, waver, and wafer in your writing with Grammar Rules from the Writer’s Digest editors, including a few examples.
For this edition of Grammar Rules, let's look at a couple homophones and a word that could work as a slant rhyme. Specifically, we're going to discuss when to use waiver, waver, and wafer. One is only used as a noun, one is most commonly used as a noun (but can also be used as a verb), and the other is most commonly used as a verb (but can also be used as noun).
So let's look at when to waiver, waver, and wafer.
Waiver vs. Waver vs. Wafer
Waiver can only be used as a noun. It refers to the act of giving up a right or privilege, including in professional sports the rights to having a specific player on the team. For instance, opening day for Major League Baseball was yesterday and there were many players put on waivers during the preceding month as teams figured out their rosters, though that process continues the entire year.
Waver, on the other hand, is mostly used as a verb that means to be unsteady either in opinion, allegiance, physical direction, or even the volume of sound. A person who is faced with three great selections of dessert on a menu may waver between which option to choose. Waver can also be used as a noun to refer to the act of wavering (as described above) and/or a person who waves (I'm assuming they're waving hello or goodbye, but maybe they just like to wave in any situation).
I've included wafer in this list only because it's not uncommon for people to mishear (or mispronounce) the "v" sound as an "f" sound. Wafer is most commonly used as a noun to refer to a thin disk, either of food (like bread or candy) or as a seal or adhesive that has that thin circular shape. As a verb, wafer refers to the process of sealing or closing something with a wafer and/or the process of dividing something (like a silicon rod or ice core) into wafers.
Make sense?
Here are a few examples of waiver, waver, and wafer:
Correct: The Cincinnati Reds lost three catchers on waivers to start the offseason.*
Incorrect: The Cincinnati Reds lost three catchers on wavers to start the offseason.
Incorrect: The Cincinnati Reds lost three catchers on wafers to start the offseason.
Correct: He found it hard not to waver between the pumpkin pie and chocolate cake, because he wanted both.
Incorrect: He found it hard not to waiver between the pumpkin pie and chocolate cake, because he wanted both.
Incorrect: He found it hard not to wafer between the pumpkin pie and chocolate cake, because he wanted both.
Correct: She put the wafer in her mouth and chewed.
Incorrect: She put the waiver in her mouth and chewed.
Incorrect: She put the waver in her mouth and chewed.
So just use the "ai" to remember that a waiver is a claim; waver is being unsteady like waves in the ocean; and a wafer is a small disk that could be food or a seal.
* Took this example from a headline and to give a shout out to my favorite baseball team since childhood. Go Reds!
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No matter what type of writing you do, mastering the fundamentals of grammar and mechanics is an important first step to having a successful writing career.
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
