whorevswireWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“whore” and “wire” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#8,877
“whore” frequency rank
#3,460
“wire” frequency rank
12337
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature whore wire
Definition Synonym of prostitute: a person (especially a woman) who offers sexual services for payment. Metal formed into a thin, even thread, now usually by being drawn through a hole in a steel die.

Where the eye mixes whore and wire

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
whore
4 ch
wire

Look-alike desk: whore vs wire

A purely visual mix-up. whore (/hɔː/) and wire (/waɪə(ɹ)/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12337, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

whore is recorded at frequency rank #8,877, classified as anoun, pronounced /hɔː/. wire is at rank #3,460, tagged as anoun, pronounced /waɪə(ɹ)/.

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 12337, this pair ranks #482,122 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of whore vs wire

Shared letters: erw. Private to "whore": ho. Private to "wire": i.

"whore" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "wire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • whorehwore · whhore · whoer · whorre · whroe · wohre · wwhore
  • wireiwre · wier · wirre · wrie · wwire

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "whore" and "wire" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/hɔː/ versus /waɪə(ɹ)/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "whore" or "wire"?
"wire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,460 in our English list, against #8,877 for "whore". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "whore" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #482,122 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "whore" and "wire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "whore vs wove". 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 #482,122 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list