wat

Clipping of English Wataluma.

wat

1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Kaninuwa.

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Kaninuwa terms

Borrowed from Thai วัด (wát).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /wat/, /wɒt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

wat (plural wats)

1. A Buddhist temple in Southeast Asia, especially those in Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.

   There are two wats near this village.

   Angkor Wat

   • 1857, Sir John Bowring, The kingdom and people of Siam, volume 1, page 165:

     Having at last got past the crowd of boats, we advanced rapidly for two hours more, when we stopped at a wat, in order to give the men a rest.

   • 1982, Carlo Caldarola, Religions and societies, Asia and the Middle East, page 379:

     Aside from its religious function in the community, the wat also performs a large variety of social functions.

   • 1996, James Bissett Pratt, The Pilgrimage of Buddhism and a Buddhist Pilgrimage, page 194:

     It would be a mistake, however, to emphasize the Hindu element in Cambodian Buddhism and Cambodian temples. At its greatest it is always a subordinate element and in most of the wats or temples it hardly appears at all, […]

   • 1999, Steve Van Beek with Luca Invernizzi, The arts of Thailand, page 15:

     It is often possible to discern the motivation or importance of a wat by examining its name

   • 2003, Joshua Eliot with Jane Bickersteth, Thailand handbook, page 268:

     The ubosoth is in a small enclosure just before the main entrance to the wat, on the right, which has fine gilded doors. The wat has a small museum.

• chedi
• pagoda
• stupa
• wat on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Borrowed from Amharic ወጥ (wäṭ).

wat

1. (cooking) A kind of stew or curry eaten in Ethiopia and Eritrea.
   • [1987 July 29, Steven Barboza, “Culinary Delights of Africa Reflect a Continent's Diversity”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     In Ethiopia, a volcanic pepper and spice seasoning, berbere, is widely used, and the stews called wats are eaten with a spongy flat bread, injera.]

Variation of what, used for humorous effect.

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /wæ(ː)t/
• Rhymes: -æt

wat

1. (informal, Internet, text messaging) Alternative spelling of what.

wat (not comparable)

1. (informal, Internet, text messaging) Alternative spelling of what.

wat

1. (informal, Internet, text messaging) Alternative spelling of what.
   • 2009 March 10, Rosie DiManno, “Murder reduced to infantile online postings”, in Toronto Star‎^[2], archived from the original on 13 March 2009:

     Then, in a staggering display of empathy for the deceased lacking, this friend segues to the narcissist nub of the matter: "Omg wat if yu get arrested b4 yur bdai."

• ATW, AWT, TWA, Taw, Twa, WTA, taw

From Proto-Great Andamanese *wat.

wat

1. bat
2. flying fox

• Juliette Blevins, Linguistic clues to Andamanese pre-history: Understanding the North-South divide, pg. 20 (2009)

From Dutch wat, from Middle Dutch wat, from Old Dutch wat, from Proto-Germanic *hwat, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷód, *kʷod.

• IPA^(key): /vat/

• Audio:

  (file)

wat

1. (interrogative, non-personal) what

   Coordinate term: (personal) wie

   Wat het julle gedrink? ― What did you guys drink?

2. (relative, personal and non-personal, subject and object) who, whom, which, that

   die man wat hier woon ― the man who lives here

   die huis wat ons gebou het ― the house that we built

3. (relative, personal and non-personal, with preposition stranding) who, which, that

   Synonyms: (without stranding) waar-, (personal only) wie

   die meisie wat ek mee gedans het ― the girl who I danced with

   die maatskappy wat ek voor gewerk het ― the company that I worked for

4. (relative, non-personal, before se) whose, of which

   Coordinate term: (personal) wie

   die land wat se president afgetree het ― the country whose president stepped down

• watter

From Middle Dutch wat, from Old Dutch wat, from Proto-West Germanic *hwat, from Proto-Germanic *hwat, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷód, *kʷod, compare West Frisian wat, English what, German was, Danish hvad.

• IPA^(key): /ʋɑt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: wat
• Rhymes: -ɑt
• Homophones: wad, watt

wat

1. (interrogative) what: e.g. (1) asking for a subject complement; (2) asking for a sentence object

   (1) Wat is dat? — What is that?

   (2) Wat wil je doen? — What do you want to do?

2. (relative) what: e.g. (1) as the object of a sentence; (2) ditto

   (1) Ik weet niet wat ik wil doen. — I don't know what I want to do.

   (2) Jij moet afblijven van wat jij daar ziet. — You must not touch what you see there.

3. (relative) that: e.g. (1) modifying an indefinite pronoun like iets, niets, alles or het enige; (2) modifying an adjective that is used as a noun, usually a superlative

   (1) Geef mij maar alles wat eetbaar is. — Please give me everything that is edible.

   (2) Het duurste wat er was. — The most expensive that there was.

4. (relative) which: e.g. (1) modifying the demonstrative pronouns dat and datgene; (2) referring back to an entire sentence

   (1) Hij nam precies datgene wat ik had gewild — He took exactly that which I had wanted.

   (2) Jantje deed het in z’n broek, wat zijn moeder in verlegenheid bracht. — John did it in his pants, which embarrassed his mother

5. (indefinite) something: e.g. (1) as subject; (2) as subject complement

   (1) Daar loopt wat rond. — Something there is walking around.

   (2) Dat is aardig wat! — That is quite something! [i.e. "That is quite a lot!"]

This pronoun can combine with a preposition to form a pronominal adverb. When this occurs, it is changed into its adverbial/locative counterpart waar. See also Category:Dutch pronominal adverbs.

A subclause following the relative pronoun wat is in SOV order.

• Berbice Creole Dutch: wa, wati
• Javindo: wat
• Jersey Dutch: wāt, wot
• Negerhollands: wat, awa, wa
• Petjo: wat
• Skepi Creole Dutch: what

wat

1. some (for countable and uncountable nouns)

   Ik wil graag wat kersen. ― I want some cherries please.

   Wil je wat thee? ― Do you want some tea?

2. (exclamative) what (a), such

   Wat een onzin! ― What nonsense!

With uncountable, or countable nouns.

wat

1. a bit, somewhat

   Synonyms: een beetje, een tikkeltje

   Hij doet dat wat onbedachtzaam. ― He does that somewhat unthoughtfully.

2. (exclamative) how, so

   Wat leuk! ― How nice!

A regional form adopted into colloquial standard German. In western Germany from Central Franconian wat, from northern Middle High German wat, from northern Old High German hwat, an unshifted relict form possibly due to Frankish influence. In northern Germany from German Low German wat, from Middle Low German wat, from Old Saxon hwat. Doublet of was.

• IPA^(key): /vat/

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

• Homophone: Watt
• Rhymes: -at

wat

1. (colloquial, regional) alternative form of was

   Wat überlegste?

   What are you thinking?

• Although found in the native lects throughout northern and western Germany, the use of wat in colloquial standard German is most typical of the West (chiefly North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate). It is also heard in some parts of northern and north-eastern Germany, e.g. in and around Berlin. In all these regions, the forms wat and was are used in free variation.

• http://www.atlas-alltagssprache.de/runde-1/f17a-c/

From Middle High German waʒ, from Old High German waʒ.

• IPA^(key): /vaːt/ (stressed)
• IPA^(key): /vɑt/ (unstressed)
• Rhymes: -aːt, -ɑt

wat

1. (interrogative) what

   Wat ass däin Numm?

   What is your name?

2. (relative) what

   Ech weess net, wat ech maache soll.

   I don't know what I should do.

Clipping of buat.

wat

1. (colloquial) apheretic form of buat

• Hoogervorst, Tom (2015), “Malay youth language in West Malaysia”, in NUSA‎^[3], volume 58, number 3, →DOI, archived from the original on 26 April 2025, page 29

From Old Dutch wat

• IPA^(key): /wat/

wat

1. what

• Afrikaans: wat
• Dutch: wat
• Limburgish: waat

• “wat (II)”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929), “wat (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page I

Uncertain; possibly from wight.

wāt

1. A person.

Uncertain.

wat

1. A rabbit.
2. A hare.

See entries.

wat

1. alternative form of wait, wath, wet, what, whate, whete, witen, wode, wold, woth, weten, wacche, wacchen, wachet, watchinges, wate, walte, weiten, and witien

• Middle English Dictionary, "wāt n.1", "wat n.2", & "wat".

From Old Saxon hwat

• IPA^(key): /wat/

wat (accusative wēne or wen, dative wēme or wem, genitive wes)

1. (interrogative, neuter) what

• Low German: wat
• Plautdietsch: waut

From Old Frisian hwet, from Proto-West Germanic *hwat.

wat (Föhr-Amrum, Sylt, Mooring)

1. what (which thing)

From Old Frisian *wit, from Proto-West Germanic *wit.

wat (dated on Sylt, elsewhere obsolete)

1. we two, the two of us (first-person dual personal pronoun)

From Proto-West Germanic *hwat.

wat

1. what

• Middle Dutch: wat
  • Afrikaans: wat
  • Dutch: wat
  • Limburgish: waat

• “wat”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012

• IPA^(key): /wɑːt/
• Rhymes: -ɑːt

wāt

1. first/third-person singular present of witan

From Proto-Germanic *wadą, whence also Old English wæd, Old Norse vað (Icelandic vað).

wat n

1. ford

• Middle High German: *wat, *wate (perhaps)
  • German: Wate f (dialectal; may also be deverbal)

• Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch‎^[4] (in German), 6th edition

• IPA^(key): /ˈvat/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -at
• Syllabification: wat
• Homophones: VAT, Wat, WAT

Named after Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist James Watt.

wat m inan

1. watt (derived unit of power)

The alternative, colloquial genitive plural form wat is proscribed.

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

wat f

1. genitive plural of wata

• “wat”, in Wielki słownik języka polskiego‎^[5] (in Polish), Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• “wat”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[6] (in Polish)

wat m (plural wats)

1. wat (a type of Buddhist temple common in Southeast Asia)

Related to wet.

wat (comparative watter, superlative wattest)

1. wet
2. drunk

wat

1. what (interrogative)

Borrowed from German Watte

2=wata

wat f

1. cotton wool

From Old Frisian hwet, from Proto-West Germanic *hwat, from Proto-Germanic *hwat, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷód.

• IPA^(key): /vɔt/

wat

1. what (interrogative)

   Wat sizze hja?

   What are they saying?

2. what (relative)

• “wat”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

wat

1. we^[1]

• wan (“myself, thy, I”)
• wy (“us”)