wa

/[vɑ̃]/ particle

Letters

2 characters

Frequency Rank

#6,747

in German word usage

Misspellings

0

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

wa is aGermanparticle. It means: verschliffene Floskel für die eingeschobene, rhetorische Frage „Gelt es?“, „Gilt es?“, „Habe ich recht?“ oder „Nicht wahr?“, „Stimmt es?“, um sich der (vorausgesetzten) Zustimmung zu versichern. Di... Pronounced [vɑ̃]. It ranks #6,747 in German word frequency. Often confused with wo and WM.

Key facts for wa
PropertyValue
Headwordwa
LanguageGerman
Part of speechParticle
IPA[vɑ̃]
Letters2
Frequency rank#6,747
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of wa in German word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The German entry for wa is 2 letters long, classified as aparticle, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [vɑ̃]. Corpus data places it at rank #6,747 in overall German word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "verschliffene Floskel für die eingeschobene, rhetorische Frage „Gelt es?“, „Gilt es?“, „Habe ich recht?“ oder „Nicht wahr?“, „Stimmt es?“, um sich der (vorausgesetzten) Zustimmung zu versichern. Di...".

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for wa in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable German patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "wo", "WM", "WE", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct German form is wa, spelled W-A, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    verschliffene Floskel für die eingeschobene, rhetorische Frage „Gelt es?“, „Gilt es?“, „Habe ich recht?“ oder „Nicht wahr?“, „Stimmt es?“, um sich der (vorausgesetzten) Zustimmung zu versichern. Die Frage wird nicht oder nur mit der gleichen Floskel beantwortet.

Synonyms

Frequency rank: #6,747 in German

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "wa"?
"wa" is spelled W-A. The IPA pronunciation is [vɑ̃].
What does "wa" mean?
As a particle, "wa" means: verschliffene Floskel für die eingeschobene, rhetorische Frage „Gelt es?“, „Gilt es?“, „Habe ich recht?“ oder „Nicht wahr?“, „Stimmt es?“, um sich der (vorausgesetzten) Zustimmung zu versichern. Di...
What words are commonly confused with "wa"?
"wa" is commonly confused with "wo", "WM", "WE". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "wa"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "wa" is [vɑ̃]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "wa" come from?
"wa" is a German word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby German words

Other entries that begin with the letter W in our German index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.