wahoo
"wahoo" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“wahoo” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #49,140 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #49,140
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 14
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Acanthocybium solandri, a tropical and subtropical game fish.
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 | wahoo |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #49,140 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 14 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “wahoo” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for wahoo is 5 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #49,140 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Acanthocybium solandri, a tropical and subtropical game fish.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for wahoo, with forms such as "awhoo", "wahhoo", and "waho". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 14 confusable-pair relationships, "who", "woo", "whom", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Perhaps from Wahoo, an obsolete spelling of Oahu, where the fish is found. The correct English form is wahoo, spelled W-A-H-O-O.
Definition
- 1Acanthocybium solandri, a tropical and subtropical game fish.
Etymology
Perhaps from Wahoo, an obsolete spelling of Oahu, where the fish is found.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: awhoo,wahhoo,waho,waoho,whaoo,wwahoo
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of wahoo - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “wahoo”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-A-H-O-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “who” - see the side-by-side comparison. wahoo vs who
- 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.