what
/wɒt/determiner, pronoun, adverb, interjection, noun, particle
what is spelled W-H-A-T. The wrong spelling people search most is waht: about 480 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 152 of all searches for the word. What is a determiner meaning “Which, especially which of an open-ended set of possibilities”.
How many letters and syllables are in what?
| Letters | 4: W-H-A-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2,399 times per million words; the 47th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 3; the most searched, waht, about 480 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell what?
What is spelled W-H-A-T. 3 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 84 of the searches for what in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is what?
What appears 2,399 times per million words in written English, the 47th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce what?
- UK /wɒt/
- British /wɔt/
- /wʱɔʈ/
What has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-what.ogg, En-NYC-what.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Halum_Halum-what.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with what
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: watt, wot (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with what?
2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as what from its last stressed vowel (/ɒt/, British pronunciation):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: thaw, hawt, wath.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of what
- wha
- wat
- whats plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does what mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
determiner
- 1
Which, especially which of an open-ended set of possibilities.
What colour are you going to use?
- 2
Which.
I wonder what colour he is going to use.
- 3
Any ... that; all ... that; whatever.
He seems to have lost what sense he had.
- 4
Emphasises 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'.
This shows what beauty there is in nature.
- 5
Used to form exclamations indicating that something is remarkable, in either a good or bad way.
What nonsense!
pronoun
- 1
Which thing, event, circumstance, etc.: used in asking for the specification of an identity, quantity, quality, etc.
Hammer in that nail –What with? I didn't bring my set of tools.
- 2
That which; those that; the thing(s) that.
He knows what he wants and what to do to get it.
- 3
Anything that; all that; whatever.
I will do what I can to help you.
- 4
nonstandardThat; which; who.
Look! It's that bloke again what was 'ere yesterday!
adverb
- 1
In what way; to what extent.
What does it matter?
- 2
Used before a prepositional phrase to emphasise that something is taken into consideration as a cause or reason; usually used in combination with 'with' (see what with), and much less commonly with other prepositions.
The Chinese of all ranks, and in every place, received my books gladly, and listened with patience to what I had to say about the true God.–So that what from opportunities of attending to the object of my Mission among the Chinese–what from
interjection
- 1
An expression of surprise or disbelief.
What! That’s amazing!
- 2
What do you want? An abrupt, usually unfriendly enquiry as to what a person desires.
What? I'm busy.
- 3
UKcolloquialdatedClipping of what do you say?, used as a type of tag question to emphasise a statement and invite agreement, often rhetorically.
It’s a nice day, what?
- 4
What did you say? I beg your pardon? This usage is often considered impolite, with the more polite "Pardon?" or "Excuse me?" preferred.
– Could I have some of those aarrrrrr mmmm ... – What?
- 5
Indicating a guess or approximation, or a pause to try to recall information.
I must have been, what, about five years old.
noun
- 1
obsoleteSomething; thing; stuff.
- 2
The identity of a thing, as an answer to a question of what.
- 3
Something that is addressed by what, as opposed to a person, addressed by who.
particle
- 1
Emphasizes the truth of an assertion made to contradict an evidently false assumption held by the listener.
Pitch contour: low [wʌt˩], low-dipping [wʌt˨˩]
- 2
Used to invite agreement or acknowledgment when something is assumed to be straightforward or already obvious to begin with; similar in function to “right?” and “as you know”.
Pitch contour: low [wʌt˩], low-dipping [wʌt˨˩]
- 3
Used after a direct assertion to reinforce a disagreeing opinion.
Pitch contour: low [wʌt˩], low-dipping [wʌt˨˩]
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate what?
Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of what: wt, wym.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | quoi , quel, quelle , que, qu'est-ce que, qu'est-ce qui |
| German | was , so , waas , welch, was für , der |
| Spanish | qué , menudo, vaya, (pero) qué , cuál , lo que |
| Portuguese | que, quanto , o que , o quê? |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does what come from?
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”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).