Which to use
“whiskey” and “whisky” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,987
- “whiskey” frequency rank
- #12,530
- “whisky” frequency rank
- 22517
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | whiskey | whisky |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A liquor distilled from the fermented mash of grain (as rye, corn, or barley). | Alternative form of whiskey, an alcoholic liquor distilled from fermented grain, usually aged in oak barrels, (particularly) Scotch; a drink of this liquor. |
Same sound, different letters: whiskey vs whisky
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. whiskey runs 7 letters (CCVCCVV) against whisky's 6 (CCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: whiskey vs whisky
This is the hard kind. whiskey and whisky are pronounced identically (/ˈwɪski/) 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 22517, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
whiskey is recorded at frequency rank #9,987, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈwɪski/. whisky is at rank #12,530, 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 22517, this pair ranks #416,000 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of whiskey vs whisky
Shared letters: hikswy. Private to "whiskey": e. Private to "whisky": -.
"whiskey" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVV · "whisky" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "whiskey" and "whisky" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "whiskey" vs "whisky" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "whiskey" / "whisky". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "whiskey" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "whisky" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #416,000 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "whiskey" and "whisky" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "whisker vs whisky". 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 #416,000 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.