wau
"wau" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“wau” is uncommon English (frequency #84,899 among 12,113 “W” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #84,899
- frequency rank, English
- 12,113
- “W” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Digamma (Ϝ/ϝ).
Corpus desk
Index EN-wau · wau · English
wau · rank #84,899 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #84,899
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 12,113
- PHOTO-FINISH Watkinson
Nearest frequency peer: Watkinson (-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 “wau”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- wampum
wampum
15,108 corpus weight
- Wann
Wann
15,107 corpus weight
- warg
warg
15,105 corpus weight
- waterboy
waterboy
15,104 corpus weight
- Watkinson
Watkinson
15,103 corpus weight
- wau
wau
15,102 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “wau” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | wau |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #84,899 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “wau” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
wau is uncommon English at frequency #84,899 among 12,113 “W” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Digamma (Ϝ/ϝ).".
wau has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From the transliteration of Ancient Greek *ϝαῦ (*waû) (reconstructed from Latin vau (/wau̯/)), from Phoenician 𐤅 (w /wāw/). Doublet of vav and waw. The correct English form is wau, spelled W-A-U.
Definition
- 1Digamma (Ϝ/ϝ).
Etymology
From the transliteration of Ancient Greek *ϝαῦ (*waû) (reconstructed from Latin vau (/wau̯/)), from Phoenician 𐤅 (w /wāw/). Doublet of vav and waw.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "wau"?
What does "wau" mean?
What is the origin of the word "wau"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "wau", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
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.