Was ist das
The verdict
“Was ist das” is outside the top-ranked German vocabulary, used as a phrase — the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency German
- 11
- letters
Dominant Wiktionary sense: Frage nach der Bezeichnung, Bedeutung oder dem Zweck eines Gegenstandes oder Begriffes oder nach der Ursache einer Erscheinung
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Was ist das |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Phrase |
| IPA | [vas ɪst das] |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Was ist das” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for Was ist das is 11 letters long, classified as a phrase, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [vas ɪst das]. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Frage nach der Bezeichnung, Bedeutung oder dem Zweck eines Gegenstandes oder Begriffes oder nach der Ursache einer Erscheinung".
No misspelling variants are generated for Was ist das in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable German patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
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 Was ist das, spelled W-A-S- -I-S-T- -D-A-S, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Frage nach der Bezeichnung, Bedeutung oder dem Zweck eines Gegenstandes oder Begriffes oder nach der Ursache einer Erscheinung
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "Was ist das"?
What does "Was ist das" mean?
How do you pronounce "Was ist das"?
What language does "Was ist das" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “Was ist das”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is W-A-S- -I-S-T- -D-A-S — every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [vas ɪst das] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more German words and confusable pairs in the same reference. German words
Nearby German words
Other entries that begin with the letter W in our German index: