Which to use
“whine” and “wine” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,267
- “whine” frequency rank
- #1,884
- “wine” frequency rank
- 22151
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | whine | wine |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A long-drawn, high-pitched complaining cry or sound. | An alcoholic beverage made by fermenting grape juice, with an ABV ranging from 5.5–16%. |
Same sound, different letters: whine vs wine
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.
Homophone desk: whine vs wine
This is the hard kind. whine and wine are pronounced identically (/waɪn/) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22151, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
whine is recorded at frequency rank #20,267, classified as anoun, pronounced /waɪn/. wine is at rank #1,884, tagged as anoun, pronounced /waɪn/.
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 22151, this pair ranks #418,690 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of whine vs wine
Shared letters: einw. Private to "whine": h. Private to "wine": -.
"whine" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "wine" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "whine" for "wine" ever safe?
Which is more common, "whine" or "wine"?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "whine" / "wine". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "whine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "wine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #418,690 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "whine" and "wine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "whine vs whined". 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 #418,690 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.