wast
/wɒst/
"wast" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“wast” is uncommon English (frequency #55,190 among 1,759 “W” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #55,190
- frequency rank, English
- 1,759
- “W” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - second-person singular simple past indicative of be; wert.
Corpus desk
Index EN-wast · wast · English
wast · rank #55,190 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #55,190
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,759
- PHOTO-FINISH Waylon
Nearest frequency peer: Waylon (+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 “wast”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- vortices
vortices
44,816 corpus weight
- waaay
waaay
44,814 corpus weight
- wast
wast
44,811 corpus weight
- Waylon
Waylon
44,810 corpus weight
- xenia
xenia
44,807 corpus weight
- yad
yad
44,805 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “wast” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | wast |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /wɒst/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #55,190 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “wast” in English
Rare enough to double-check
wast is uncommon English at frequency #55,190 among 1,759 “W” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /wɒst/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "second-person singular simple past indicative of be; wert.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for wast, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Late Middle English wast; equivalent to was + -est. The correct English form is wast, spelled W-A-S-T.
Definition
- 1second-person singular simple past indicative of be; wert.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how wast appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I remember the day when thou wast born.
Take thou no scorn to wear the horn, It was a crest ere thou wast born […]
Etymology
From Late Middle English wast; equivalent to was + -est.
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 "wast", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).