Which to use
“whats” and “wits” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,625
- “whats” frequency rank
- #19,257
- “wits” frequency rank
- 27882
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | whats | wits |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of what; used as a stand-in to collectively pluralize arbitrary instances of things. Often used along with whys, hows, etc. | plural of wit |
Letter map: whats vs wits
Shared letters muted; letters that set whats and wits apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. whats runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against wits's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Pair insight - whats / wits
whats and wits 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27882, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
whats is recorded at frequency rank #8,625, classified as anoun. wits is at rank #19,257, tagged as anoun, pronounced /wɪts/.
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 27882, this pair ranks #375,361 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of whats vs wits
Shared letters: stw. Private to "whats": ah. Private to "wits": i.
"whats" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "wits" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "whats" and "wits" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "whats" vs "wits" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "whats" and "wits".
- Full dictionary entry for "whats" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "wits" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #375,361 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "whats" and "wits" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wim vs wits". 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 #375,361 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.