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what-s-done-is-done

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

19 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "what-s-done-is-done", 19-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "what-s-done-is-done" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "what-s-done-is-done" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

what's done is done is aEnglishproverb. It means: Events that have already taken place cannot be changed and actions that have already been committed cannot be undone, so it is best not to dwell on them.

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Key facts for what's done is done
PropertyValue
Headwordwhat's done is done
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechProverb
Letters19
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

what's done is done is not present in the top-100,000 ranked English corpus, typical for technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary.

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for what's done is done is 19 letters long, classified as aproverb. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader.The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Events that have already taken place cannot be changed and actions that have already been committed cannot be undone, so it is best not to dwell on them.".

No misspelling variants are generated for what's done is done in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: From a line of dialogue spoken by the character Lady Macbeth in Act III Scene II of Macbeth by William Shakespeare. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is what's done is done, spelled W-H-A-T-'-S- -D-O-N-E- -I-S- -D-O-N-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Events that have already taken place cannot be changed and actions that have already been committed cannot be undone, so it is best not to dwell on them.

Etymology

From a line of dialogue spoken by the character Lady Macbeth in Act III Scene II of Macbeth by William Shakespeare.

This word in other languages

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "what's done is done"?
"what's done is done" is spelled W-H-A-T-'-S- -D-O-N-E- -I-S- -D-O-N-E.
What does "what's done is done" mean?
As a proverb, "what's done is done" means: Events that have already taken place cannot be changed and actions that have already been committed cannot be undone, so it is best not to dwell on them.
What is the origin of the word "what's done is done"?
From a line of dialogue spoken by the character Lady Macbeth in Act III Scene II of Macbeth by William Shakespeare. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter W in our English index:

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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.