whale
/ˈweɪl/noun, verb
whale is spelled W-H-A-L-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 9.5 times per million words in written English, the 7,338th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, whale means “Any large cetacean, usually with the exclusion of dolphins and porpoises” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of whale is whales.
How many letters and syllables are in whale?
| Letters | 5: W-H-A-L-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 |
| In writing | 9.5 times per million words; the 7,338th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is whale?
Whale appears 9.5 times per million words in written English, the 7,338th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce whale?
- US /ˈweɪl/
- British /ˈwɛj(ə)l/
- Australia /ˈwæɪl/
Whale has one syllable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-whale.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with whale
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: wail, wale (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with whale?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as whale from its last stressed vowel (/eɪl/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: wheal.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of whale
- whales plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- whaling participle, present
- whaled participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does whale mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Any large cetacean, usually with the exclusion of dolphins and porpoises.
Near-synonym: baleen (obsolete sense)
- 2
Any species of Cetacea, including dolphins and porpoises.
- 3
Something, or someone, that is very large.
It was a whale of a job. […] It took two months, and the fair blush of youth off my cheeks.
- 4
Something, or someone, that is excellent.
My own father only wrote one poem in his life as far as I know, but it was a whale of a lyric, the kind you would give your whole life to write, which he did, but that is another story.
- 5
A gambler who routinely wagers large amounts of money.
- 6
informalAn investor who deals with very large amounts of money.
- 7
A person who spends large amounts of money on things that are marketed to them.
- 8
colloquialderogatoryAn overweight person (usually a woman)
verb
- 1
To hunt for whales.
- 2
slangTo thrash, to flog, to beat vigorously or soundly.
Brought him back, put him in the stall–low stable–got out of his reach, and then begun to whale him. Then he kicked up agin; […]
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Whale in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.