gast
/ɡɑːst/
"gast" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“gast” is uncommon English (frequency #88,372 among 2,313 “G” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #88,372
- frequency rank, English
- 2,313
- “G” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To frighten.
Corpus desk
Index EN-gast · gast · English
gast · rank #88,372 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #88,372
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,313
- PHOTO-FINISH gehenna
Nearest frequency peer: gehenna (+1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
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.
Long-tail ranks near “gast”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Garman
Garman
11,631 corpus weight
- gast
gast
11,629 corpus weight
- gehenna
gehenna
11,628 corpus weight
- Geisel
Geisel
11,627 corpus weight
- geode
geode
11,625 corpus weight
- gerrymander
gerrymander
11,624 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “gast” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | gast |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ɡɑːst/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #88,372 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “gast” in English
Rare enough to double-check
gast is uncommon English at frequency #88,372 among 2,313 “G” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /ɡɑːst/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To frighten.".
No misspelling variants are generated for gast in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English gasten, from Old English gǣstan, from Proto-Germanic *gaistijaną. Also spelled ghast due to association with ghost. The correct English form is gast, spelled G-A-S-T.
Definition
- 1To frighten.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how gast appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
[H]ee charges home my vnprouided body, lancht mine arme, but when he ſaw my beſt alarumd ſpirits, bould in the quarrels, rights, rouſd to the encounter, or whether gaſted by the noyſe I made, but ſodainly he fled.
Etymology
From Middle English gasten, from Old English gǣstan, from Proto-Germanic *gaistijaną. Also spelled ghast due to association with ghost.
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 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "gast", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).