what gives
"what-gives" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“what gives” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a phrase. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - What is wrong? Why is this happening?
Corpus desk
Index EN-what-gives · what gives · English
what gives · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-3 3 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 gives |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Phrase |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “what gives” in English
Rare enough to double-check
what gives is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aphrase. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for what gives, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: First attested in 1940, in John O'Hara's novel Pal Joey. The term is considered by the American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, Second Edition (2013) and several other references to be a calque of German “was gibt's?” and/or a Yiddish equivalent. Brian Josep… The correct English form is what gives, spelled W-H-A-T- -G-I-V-E-S.
Definition
- 1What is wrong? Why is this happening?
- 2What is happening? What is going on?
- 3How are you?
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how what gives appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Not even thirty minutes after leaving the shower, my head starts itching. What gives?
What gives with you and Martha?
Etymology
First attested in 1940, in John O'Hara's novel Pal Joey. The term is considered by the American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, Second Edition (2013) and several other references to be a calque of German “was gibt's?” and/or a Yiddish equivalent. Brian Joseph disputes this, and speculates that despite extremely late attestation, it and the German was gibt's may "allow[] for a reconstruction of a Proto-West-Germanic existential use of 'give', which survives marginally into present usage."
This word in other languages
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.