wai
/waɪ/
"wai" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“wai” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #24,637) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #24,637
- frequency rank, English
- 1,759
- “W” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 2, 2026) - A Thai greeting wherein the palms are brought together in front of the face or chest, sometimes accompanied with a bow.
Corpus desk
Index EN-wai · wai · English
wai · rank #24,637 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #24,637
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,759
- PHOTO-FINISH wafer
Nearest frequency peer: wafer (-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 “wai”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- Vogel
Vogel
75,367 corpus weight
- vouch
vouch
75,366 corpus weight
- wafer
wafer
75,365 corpus weight
- wai
wai
75,364 corpus weight
- WCW
WCW
75,363 corpus weight
- wiz
wiz
75,362 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “wai” 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 | wai |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /waɪ/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #24,637 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “wai” sits in English frequency
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for wai is neighbouring look-alikes ("we", "wi", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /waɪ/. Frequency #24,637 among 1,759 “W” headwords. Gloss: "A Thai greeting wherein the palms are brought together in front of the face or chest, sometimes accompanied with a bow.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for wai in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "we", "wi", "Wu", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Thai ไหว้ (wâi, “a gesture of thanks”). The correct English form is wai, spelled W-A-I.
Definition
- 1A Thai greeting wherein the palms are brought together in front of the face or chest, sometimes accompanied with a bow.
Etymology
Borrowed from Thai ไหว้ (wâi, “a gesture of thanks”).
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 September 2, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "wai", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
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.