overwordExplorer
GERMAN · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

was.

what

3 characters1 syllables approx.Deutsch language

Meaning & usage

pron/vas/standard/vaːs/

  1. what

    interrogative
    Was machst du heute?

  2. which; referring to the entire preceding clause

    relative
    Sie tanzte gut, was er bewunderte.

  3. that, which; referring to das, alles, etwas, nichts, and neuter substantival adjectives

    relative
    Das ist alles, was ich weiß.
    Das ist das Beste, was mir passieren konnte.

  4. that, which; referring to neuter singular nouns, instead of standard das

    colloquial · relative
    Siehst du das weiße Haus, was renoviert wird?

  5. something, anything; instead of standard etwas

    colloquial · indefinite
    Ich hab was gefunden.
Where this word comes from

From Middle High German waȥ, from Old High German waȥ, from Proto-West Germanic *hwat, from Proto-Germanic *hwat, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷod. Cognate with Dutch wat, Low German wat, English what, Danish hvad, Icelandic hvað.

adv/vas/standard/vaːs/

  1. clipping of etwas: a bit, somewhat

    Münsterland · Rhineland · abbreviation · alt-of · clipping · colloquial · including · regional
    Ich komm was später.

  2. why, what for; often expressing a personal concern about the matter

    colloquial · interrogative · poetic
    Was bist du heute so stumm?
    Was kuckt der hier so komisch rüber?
Where this word comes from

From Middle High German waȥ, from Old High German waȥ, from Proto-West Germanic *hwat, from Proto-Germanic *hwat, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷod. Cognate with Dutch wat, Low German wat, English what, Danish hvad, Icelandic hvað.

det/vas/standard/vaːs/

  1. what; what kind of

    archaic
Where this word comes from

From Middle High German waȥ, from Old High German waȥ, from Proto-West Germanic *hwat, from Proto-Germanic *hwat, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷod. Cognate with Dutch wat, Low German wat, English what, Danish hvad, Icelandic hvað.

intj/vas/standard/vaːs/

  1. eh?, huh? (tag question)

    Ganz schön kalt, was?
Where this word comes from

From Middle High German waȥ, from Old High German waȥ, from Proto-West Germanic *hwat, from Proto-Germanic *hwat, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷod. Cognate with Dutch wat, Low German wat, English what, Danish hvad, Icelandic hvað.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.