warstvsWatTell them apart

Quick tell: warst is a verb, Wat is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“warst” is a verb and “Wat” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,092
“warst” frequency rank
#7,690
“Wat” frequency rank
10782
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature warst Wat
Definition 2. Person Singular Präteritum Indikativ des Verbs sein untiefe Stelle im Fluss

Letter map: warst vs Wat

Shared letters muted; letters that set warst and Wat apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
warst
3 ch
Wat

Grammar separator: warst vs Wat

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: warst is averb and Watanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10782, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

warst is recorded at frequency rank #3,092, classified as averb, pronounced [vaːɐ̯st]. Wat is at rank #7,690, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 10782, this pair ranks #1,973,340 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of warst vs Wat

Shared letters: atw. Private to "warst": rs. Private to "Wat": -.

"warst" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "Wat" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • warstawrst · warrst · warsst · warstt · warts · wasrt · wrast · wwarst

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "warst" and "Wat" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "warst" is a verb and "Wat" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "warst" or "Wat" show up more?
"warst" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,092 in our German list, against #7,690 for "Wat". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "warst" and "Wat". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "warst" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Wat" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,973,340 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "warst" and "Wat" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs Wat". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #1,973,340 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list