what do you know
"what-do-you-know" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“what do you know” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a phrase. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 16
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - What a surprise; guess what.
Corpus desk
Index EN-what-do-you-know · what do you know · English
what do you know · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 16 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "W" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | what do you know |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Phrase |
| Letters | 16 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “what do you know” in English
Rare enough to double-check
what do you know is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aphrase. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for what do you know, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is what do you know, spelled W-H-A-T- -D-O- -Y-O-U- -K-N-O-W.
Definition
- 1What a surprise; guess what.
- 2Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see what, do, you, know.; especially, synonym of you don't know what you're talking about.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how what do you know appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Near-synonym: who would have thunk it
Well, what do you know, it's raining again.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.