sperm whale
"sperm-whale" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sperm whale” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A whale, Physeter macrocephalus, the largest of the toothed whales.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sperm whale |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sperm whale” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
sperm whale is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
sperm whale has no tracked misspelling variants, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: A clipping of spermaceti whale. The correct English form is sperm whale, spelled S-P-E-R-M- -W-H-A-L-E.
Definition
- 1A whale, Physeter macrocephalus, the largest of the toothed whales.
- 2Any whale in the superfamily Physeteroidea, which also includes the small whales of genus Kogia.
Etymology
A clipping of spermaceti whale.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “sperm whale”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-P-E-R-M- -W-H-A-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.