whoovswhosWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: whoo is a intj, whos is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

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 spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set whoo and whos apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
whoo
4 ch
whos

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

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

  • whoohwoo · whhoo · woho · wwhoo
  • whoshwos · whhos · whoss · whso · wohs · wwhos

Frequency comparison

whoo#37,768
whos#27,029

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "whoo" and "whos" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "whoo" is an intj and "whos" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "whoo" or "whos"?
"whos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,029 in our English list, against #37,768 for "whoo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering whoo vs whos

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an intj, it's “whoo”; for a noun, it's “whos”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “whoo” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list