Which to use
“who're” is a contraction and “whore” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #34,747
- “who're” frequency rank
- #8,877
- “whore” frequency rank
- 43624
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | who're | whore |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Who are. | Synonym of prostitute: a person (especially a woman) who offers sexual services for payment. |
Where the eye mixes who're and whore
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. who're and whore follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between who're and whore
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: who're is [hʊɚ] while whore is /hɔː/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (contraction vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43624, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
who're is recorded at frequency rank #34,747, classified as acontraction, pronounced [hʊɚ]. whore is at rank #8,877, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hɔː/.
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 43624, this pair ranks #238,198 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of who're vs whore
Shared letters: ehorw. Private to "who're": -. Private to "whore": -.
"who're" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "whore" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- whore ← hwore · whhore · whoer · whorre · whroe · wohre · wwhore
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "who're" and "whore" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "who're" vs "whore" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "who're" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "whore" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #238,198 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "who're" and "whore" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "who're vs whorl". 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 #238,198 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.