Word Confusion: Wail vs Wale vs Whale

Plural for the noun: wails
Gerund: wailing

Third person present verb: wails
Past tense or past participle: wailed
Present participle: wailing

Plural for the noun: wales
Gerund: waling

Third person present verb: wales
Past tense or past participle: waled
Present participle: waling

Plural for the noun: whale, whales
Gerund: whaling

Third person present verb: whales
Past tense or past participle: whaled
Present participle: whaling

• A sound resembling a prolonged high-pitched cry

Verb, intransitive:
Give a cry of pain, grief, or anger

• Make a sound resembling a wail
• Cry out hard and loud

[Jazz] To perform exceptionally well

Verb, transitive:
Give a cry of pain, grief, or anger

• [Literary] Manifest or feel deep sorrow for
• Lament

Well-selected

Noun:
A choice ¹

A streak, stripe, or ridge produced on the skin by the stroke of a rod or whip ²

• Welt

A vertical row of stitches in knitting

• A chain of loops running lengthwise in knit fabric

The texture or weave of a fabric

Horizontal band on a basket

[Nautical] Any of certain strakes of thick outside planking on the sides of a wooden ship

• Gunwale

[Engineering, Building Trades] A horizontal timber or other support for reinforcing various upright members, as sheet piling or concrete form boards, or for retaining earth at the edge of an excavation

A ridge on the outside of a horse collar

Something that is selected as the best ³

• Choice

Verb, transitive:
To choose ¹

To mark with wales ²

• To raise a wale or wales on by striking

To weave with wales

[Engineering, Building Trades] To reinforce or fasten with a wale or wales

To choose ³

• Select

Noun:
Huge mammal that lives in water and surfaces to breathe ²

Verb, intransitive:
[Informal; chiefly North American] Beat, hit ³

Verb, transitive:
Hit someone hard and repeatedly ³

The wail of an air-raid siren.

It was the wail of an old tune.

Verb, intransitive:
Tina ran off wailing.

“But why?” she wailed.

The baby was wailing.

The wind wailed and buffeted the timber structure.

Verb, transitive:
She wailed her wretched life.

She wailed at the funeral of her child.

They wailed the dead that they might not return.

That jazz band last night really wailed.

On an historical and religious note, the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem is sacred to Jews as a site for prayer and pilgrimage.

Noun:
His back was covered in wales.

One yarn is required for every wale.

“Rib knits have pronounced lengthwise ribs formed by wales alternating on both sides of the fabric” (Editors).

I don’t mind a wide wale corduroy for trousers, but I much prefer a pinwale for vests and such.

The gunwale was once the gun ridge on a sailing warship; these days, it’s the top edge of the side of a boat.

“Vertical staving was used to carry the wale around the stern” (Chapelle).

“Cleats or scabs should be nailed in place over the joints between struts and wales” (Trenching).

A ganged form may be braced with wales.

When cleaning a horse collar, pay attention to the gunk that accumulates along the wale.

Verb, transitive:
A herringbone weave has wales running both ways.

The crew waled in a support for the formwork.

Noun:
She was having a whale of a time at the party.

Fortunes were made on the East Coast by whalers hunting whales for their oil.

Verb, intransitive:
They whaled at the water with their paddles.

The muggers whaled on their victim.

They were whaling away on each other.

Verb, transitive:
Dad came upstairs and whaled me.

They whaled us six–zip.

She hauled off and whaled him a shrewd blow.

1. From the Old Norse val meaning choice and related to the German Wahl.
2. Late Old English walu meaning stripe, weal.
3. 1250-1300, Middle English wal (e) from the Old Norse val meaning choice and velja meaning to choose.

1. Unknown.
2. Old English hwæl is of Germanic origin.
3. Late 18th century as a variant of wale.