wot
/wɔt/
"wot" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“wot” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #28,090) as a verb. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #28,090
- frequency rank, English
- 1,759
- “W” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To know (in the sense of knowing a fact).
Corpus desk
Index EN-wot · wot · English
wot · rank #28,090 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #28,090
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,759
- PHOTO-FINISH wobbly
Nearest frequency peer: wobbly (-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 neighbours of confusable “wot”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- widower
widower
71,914 corpus weight
- WNBA
WNBA
71,913 corpus weight
- wobbly
wobbly
71,912 corpus weight
- wot
wot
71,911 corpus weight
- wraith
wraith
71,910 corpus weight
- ya'll
ya'll
71,909 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “wot” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
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 | wot |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /wɔt/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #28,090 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “wot”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for wot is neighbouring look-alikes ("Wu", "wt", …), not just typos; it is averb pronounced /wɔt/. Frequency #28,090 among 1,759 “W” headwords. Gloss: "To know (in the sense of knowing a fact).".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for wot, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Wu", "wt", "WS", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English woten, from Old English weotan. An extension of the present-tense form of wit (verb) to apply to all forms. The correct English form is wot, spelled W-O-T.
Definition
- 1To know (in the sense of knowing a fact).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how wot appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
He that walketh in the darke, wotteth not whither he goeth.
Take heed to false harlots, and more, ye wot what. / If noise ye heare, / Looke all be cleare: / Least drabs doe noie thee, / And theeues destroie thee.
Etymology
From Middle English woten, from Old English weotan. An extension of the present-tense form of wit (verb) to apply to all forms.
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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "wot", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).