Which to use
“west” is a noun and “what” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #521
- “west” frequency rank
- #46
- “what” frequency rank
- 567
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | west | what |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The direction opposite to that of the earth's rotation, specifically 270°. | Which, especially which of an open-ended set of possibilities. |
Where the eye mixes west and what
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: west is /wɛst/ while what is /wɒt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 567, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
west is recorded at frequency rank #521, classified as anoun, pronounced /wɛst/. what is at rank #46, tagged as adet, pronounced /wɒt/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 567, this pair ranks #529,187 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of west vs what
Shared letters: tw. Private to "west": es. Private to "what": ah.
"west" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "what" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "west" and "what" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "west" or "what"?
What to do next
You've compared "west" and "what". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "west" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "what" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #529,187 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "west" and "what" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Wac vs what". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.