Which to use
“whoo” is an intj and “whos” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #37,768
- “whoo” frequency rank
- #27,029
- “whos” frequency rank
- 64797
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | whoo | whos |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An expression of delight and excitement. | plural of who; often used along with whats, whys, hows, etc. |
Where the eye mixes whoo and whos
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. whoo (CCVV) and whos (CCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: whoo vs whos
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: whoo is /wuː/ while whos is /huːz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - o in “whoo” becomes s in “whos”, and the parts of speech differ too (intj vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64797, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
whoo is recorded at frequency rank #37,768, classified as anintj, pronounced /wuː/. whos is at rank #27,029, tagged as anoun, pronounced /huːz/.
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 64797, this pair ranks #75,925 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of whoo vs whos
Shared letters: how. Private to "whoo": -. Private to "whos": s.
"whoo" · 4 letters · shape CCVV · "whos" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "whoo" for "whos" ever safe?
Which is more common, "whoo" or "whos"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "whoo" and "whos" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "whoo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "whos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #75,925 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "whoo" and "whos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "whoo 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 #75,925 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.