was
/wəz/
"was" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“was” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #16) as a verb. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #16
- frequency rank, English
- 1,759
- “W” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - first-person singular simple past indicative of be.
Corpus desk
Index EN-was · was · English
was · rank #16 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #16
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,759
- PHOTO-FINISH this
Nearest frequency peer: this (-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 “was”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- on
on
99,988 corpus weight
- with
with
99,987 corpus weight
- this
this
99,986 corpus weight
- was
was
99,985 corpus weight
- be
be
99,984 corpus weight
- as
as
99,983 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “was” 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 | was |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /wəz/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #16 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “was” sits in English frequency
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for was is neighbouring look-alikes ("we", "wi", …), not just typos; it is averb pronounced /wəz/. Frequency #16 among 1,759 “W” headwords. 6 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for was, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "we", "wi", "Wu", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes- Proto-Germanic *was Old English wæs Middle English was English was From Middle English was, from Old English wæs, from Proto-Germanic *was, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂we-h₂wós-e from *h₂wes- (“to reside”), whence … The correct English form is was, spelled W-A-S.
Definition
- 1first-person singular simple past indicative of be.
- 2third-person singular simple past indicative of be.
- 3Used in phrases with existential there when the semantic subject is (usually third-person) plural.
- 4second-person singular simple past indicative of be; were.
- 5first-person plural simple past indicative of be; were.
- 6third-person plural simple past indicative of be; were.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how was appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I was castigated and scorned.
It was a really humongous slice of cake.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes- Proto-Germanic *was Old English wæs Middle English was English was From Middle English was, from Old English wæs, from Proto-Germanic *was, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂we-h₂wós-e from *h₂wes- (“to reside”), whence also vestal. See also Scots was, West Frisian was (dated, wie is generally preferred today), Dutch was, Low German was, German war, Swedish var); also Kamkata-viri vos-, Sanskrit उवास (uvā́sa). The paradigm of “to be” has been since the time of Proto-Germanic a synthesis of three originally distinct verb stems. The infinitive form be is from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- (“to become”). The forms is and are are both derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- (“to be”). Lastly, the past forms starting with w- such as was and were are from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes- (“to reside”).
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 "was", not the corpus desk frequency band.
What to do next
You've looked up "was". Here's where to go from here.
- "was" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "we". View pair
- Usage frequency rank #16 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.