wager
/ˈweɪ.d͡ʒə(ɹ)/
"wager" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“wager” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #16,617. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #16,617
- frequency rank, English
- 1,759
- “W” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A bet; a stake; a pledge.
Corpus desk
Index EN-wager · wager · English
wager · rank #16,617 · 7 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #16,617
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,759
- PHOTO-FINISH walled
Nearest frequency peer: walled (+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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “wager”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- Venezuelan
Venezuelan
83,388 corpus weight
- vis
vis
83,387 corpus weight
- Vivian
Vivian
83,386 corpus weight
- wager
wager
83,384 corpus weight
- walled
walled
83,383 corpus weight
- whack
whack
83,381 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “wager” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | wager |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈweɪ.d͡ʒə(ɹ)/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #16,617 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “wager” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around wager (IPA /ˈweɪ.d͡ʒə(ɹ)/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #16,617 among 1,759 “W” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for wager, with forms such as "awger", "waegr", and "wagerr". 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, "war", "wer", "wake", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English wajour, wageour, wager, from Old Northern French wageure, from wagier (“to pledge”) (compare Old French guagier, whence modern French gager and contemporary Walloon wadjî), ultimately from Frankish *waddjōn (“to pledge”), from Frankish *… The correct English form is wager, spelled W-A-G-E-R.
Definition
- 1A bet; a stake; a pledge.
- 2The subject of a bet.
- 3A contract by which two parties or more agree that a certain sum of money, or other thing, shall be paid or delivered to one of them, on the happening or not happening of an uncertain event.
- 4An offer to make oath.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how wager appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
1842-43, Edgar Allan Poe, "The Mystery of Marie Roget" “This thicket was a singular, an exceedingly singular one. It was unusually dense. Within its naturally walled enclosure were three extraordinary stones, forming a seat with a back and footstool.… , whose boys were in the habit of closely examining the shrubberies about them in search of the bark of t…
They have hired high-tech security companies to monitor wagers at a granular level and implemented sophisticated algorithmic systems to spot unusual gambling activity, ensuring that no athlete would be foolish enough to wager on a game. […] And prop bets have proved particularly ripe for manipulation. A prop bet is a wager on a specific occurrence during…
Etymology
From Middle English wajour, wageour, wager, from Old Northern French wageure, from wagier (“to pledge”) (compare Old French guagier, whence modern French gager and contemporary Walloon wadjî), ultimately from Frankish *waddjōn (“to pledge”), from Frankish *wadi ~ *waddī (“pledge”). See also wage.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- awger
- waegr
- wagerr
- wagger
- wagre
- wgaer
- wwager
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of wager - 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.
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 "wager", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "wager". Here's where to go from here.
- "wager" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "war". View pair
- 7 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #16,617 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "W" letter cohort. W–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.