w
/ˈdʌbəl.juː/
"w" is a 1-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“w” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #628) as a character. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #628
- frequency rank, English
- 12,113
- “W” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The twenty-third letter of the English alphabet, called double-u and written in the Latin script.
Corpus desk
Index EN-w · w · English
w · rank #628 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #628
- LEN-SHORT 1 letters
- VOW-0 0 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 12,113
- PHOTO-FINISH total
Nearest frequency peer: total (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “w”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- record
record
99,376 corpus weight
- similar
similar
99,375 corpus weight
- total
total
99,374 corpus weight
- w
w
99,373 corpus weight
- above
above
99,372 corpus weight
- club
club
99,371 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “w” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | w |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Character |
| IPA | /ˈdʌbəl.juː/ |
| Letters | 1 |
| Frequency rank | #628 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “w” sits in English frequency
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for w is neighbouring look-alikes ("we", "WA", …), not just typos; it is acharacter pronounced /ˈdʌbəl.juː/. Frequency #628 among 12,113 “W” headwords. Gloss: "The twenty-third letter of the English alphabet, called double-u and written in the Latin script.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for w, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "we", "WA", "wi", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is w, spelled W.
Definition
- 1The twenty-third letter of the English alphabet, called double-u and written in the Latin script.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "w"?
What does "w" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "w"?
How do you pronounce "w"?
What language does "w" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
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.