Which to use
“whisker” and “whiskey” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,721
- “whisker” frequency rank
- #9,987
- “whiskey” frequency rank
- 59708
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | whisker | whiskey |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | That part of the beard which grows upon the sides of the face, usually of the male, or upon the chin, or upon both. | A liquor distilled from the fermented mash of grain (as rye, corn, or barley). |
Where the eye mixes whisker and whiskey
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. whisker (CCVCCVC) and whiskey (CCVCCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between whisker and whiskey
A purely visual mix-up. whisker (/ʍɪskə(ɹ)/) and whiskey (/ˈwɪski/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - r in “whisker” becomes y in “whiskey”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59708, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
whisker is recorded at frequency rank #49,721, classified as anoun, pronounced /ʍɪskə(ɹ)/. whiskey is at rank #9,987, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈwɪski/.
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 59708, this pair ranks #104,536 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of whisker vs whiskey
Shared letters: ehiksw. Private to "whisker": r. Private to "whiskey": y.
"whisker" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "whiskey" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "whisker" for "whiskey" ever safe?
Which is more common, "whisker" or "whiskey"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "whisker" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "whiskey" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #104,536 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "whisker" and "whiskey" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "whimper vs whisker". 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 #104,536 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.