# wham vs what

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### wham
*noun · IPA /wæm/ · frequency rank #38,243*
A forceful blow.

### what
*determiner · IPA /wɒt/ · frequency rank #46*
Which, especially which of an open-ended set of possibilities.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/wham-vs-what