what
/wɒt/
"what" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“what” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #46. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #46
- frequency rank, English
- 1,759
- “W” headwords
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Which, especially which of an open-ended set of possibilities.
Corpus desk
Index EN-what · what · English
what · rank #46 · 6 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #46
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 6 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,759
- PHOTO-FINISH out
Nearest frequency peer: out (-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 “what”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- about
about
99,958 corpus weight
- up
up
99,957 corpus weight
- out
out
99,956 corpus weight
- what
what
99,955 corpus weight
- has
has
99,954 corpus weight
- when
when
99,953 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “what” 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 | what |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Determiner |
| IPA | /wɒt/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #46 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “what” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 6 spelling variants around what (IPA /wɒt/), adeterminer. Corpus frequency is #46 among 1,759 “W” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for what, with forms such as "hwat", "waht", and "whatt". 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, "wt", "who", "why", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kʷ- Proto-Indo-European *kʷís Proto-Germanic *hwat Proto-West Germanic *hwat Old English hwæt Middle English what English what From Middle English what, from Old English hwæt (“what”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwat, from… The correct English form is what, spelled W-H-A-T.
Definition
- 1Which, especially which of an open-ended set of possibilities.
- 2Which.
- 3Any ... that; all ... that; whatever.
- 4Emphasises that something is noteworthy or remarkable in quality or degree, in either a good or bad way; may be used in combination with certain other determiners, especially 'a', less often 'some'.
- 5Emphasises that something is noteworthy or remarkable in quality or degree, in either a good or bad way; may be used in combination with certain other determiners, especially 'a', less often 'some'.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how what appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
What colour are you going to use?
What time is it?
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kʷ- Proto-Indo-European *kʷís Proto-Germanic *hwat Proto-West Germanic *hwat Old English hwæt Middle English what English what From Middle English what, from Old English hwæt (“what”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwat, from Proto-Germanic *hwat (“what”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷód (“what”), neuter form of *kʷós (“who”). Cognate with Scots what, whit (“what”), North Frisian wat (“what”), Saterland Frisian wat (“what”), West Frisian wat (“what”), Dutch wat (“what”), Low German wat (“what”), German was (“what”), Danish hvad (“what”), Norwegian Bokmål hva (“what”), Swedish vad (“what”), Norwegian Nynorsk kva (“what”), Icelandic hvað (“what”), Latin quod (“what, which”). Its use as a particle of contradiction or objection in colloquial Singaporean and Malaysian English is analogous to Cantonese 喎 /㖞 (wo³, etymology 2, sense 3). It is possible that this was historically reinforced by the dated use of what as a sentence-final question tag in British English.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- hwat
- waht
- whatt
- whhat
- whta
- wwhat
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of what - 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
How do you spell "what"?
What does "what" mean?
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "what", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "what". Here's where to go from here.
- "what" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "wt". View pair
- 6 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #46 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.