what

[wɒt]

/[wɒt]/ pron

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“what” has 6 generated spelling variants in the German index at frequency #4,752. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#4,752
frequency rank, German
2,930
“W” headwords
6
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - was?

Corpus desk

Index DE-what · what · German

what · rank #4,752 · 6 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #4,752
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 6 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,930
  • PHOTO-FINISH vorm

Nearest frequency peer: vorm (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rang-Peers am Tippfehler-Magneten „what“

Gleiche Seltenheitsbandbreite: nützlich, wenn ein Tippfehler auf ein Peer-Lemma trifft

corpus weight

What this shows „what“ sitzt unter diesen FrequencyWords-Peers; die Tippfehlertiefe steht separat im Edit-Distance-Chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

what vs Wut
25% similar
what vs WHO
0% similar
what vs why
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for what
PropertyValue
Headwordwhat
LanguageGerman
Part of speechPronoun
IPA[wɒt]
Letters4
Frequency rank#4,752
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Häufigkeitslage von Tippfehler-Magnet „what“

Diese Skala geht vom Kern des Alltagdeutschen (links) bis zum seltenen Langschwanz (rechts).whatliegt hier neben dem Tippfehler-Druck:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Die Achse ist logarithmisch: jeder Tick markiert etwa zehnfach geringere Häufigkeit. Peers derselben Seltenheitsbandbreite: „vorm“ (#4,751), „Verstorbenen“ (#4,750), „zeichnet“ (#4,754). Unter 2,930 „W“-Lemmata liegt „what“ bei #4,752. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 6 spelling variants around what (IPA [wɒt]), apronoun. Corpus frequency is #4,752 among 2,930 “W” headwords. Dominant gloss: "was?".

Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for what, with forms such as "hwat", "waht", and "whatt". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Wut", "WHO", "why", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct German form is what, spelled W-H-A-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    was?

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how what appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. What are you going to do tomorrow?
  2. What is your favourite colour?

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • hwat
  • waht
  • whatt
  • whhat
  • whta
  • wwhat

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of what - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

hwat2waht2whatt1whhat1whta2wwhat1
Edit distance from "what"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "what"?
"what" is spelled W-H-A-T. The IPA pronunciation is [wɒt].
What does "what" mean?
As a pronoun, "what" means: was?
What words are commonly confused with "what"?
"what" is commonly confused with "Wut", "WHO", "why". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "what"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "what" is [wɒt]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "what" come from?
"what" is a German word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

Similar German words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "what", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

vorm#4,751Audi#4,765Kilo#4,714kids#4,713

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).

ideal6 variantsErich6 variantswarf6 variantsalice6 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list