Which to use
“whales” and “whores” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,154
- “whales” frequency rank
- #18,463
- “whores” frequency rank
- 28617
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | whales | whores |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of whale | plural of whore |
Letter map: whales vs whores
Shared letters muted; letters that set whales and whores apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. whales and whores follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Corpus notes: whales and whores
whales and whores are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28617, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
whales is recorded at frequency rank #10,154, classified as anoun, pronounced /weɪlz/. whores is at rank #18,463, tagged as anoun.
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 28617, this pair ranks #369,659 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of whales vs whores
Shared letters: ehsw. Private to "whales": al. Private to "whores": or.
"whales" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "whores" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "whales" for "whores" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "whales" or "whores" show up more?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "whales" and "whores".
- Full dictionary entry for "whales" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "whores" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #369,659 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "whales" and "whores" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "whores vs whorl". 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
Confusion rank #369,659 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.