whaler
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
6 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "whaler", 6-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "whaler" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "whaler" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
whaler is aEnglishnoun. It means: One who hunts whales; any person employed in the whaling industry. Pronounced /ˈweɪlə/.
Compare similar words
See how whaler compares against similar English words.
Browse all word comparisons →| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | whaler |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈweɪlə/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #62,618 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for whaler is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈweɪlə/. Corpus data places it at rank #62,618 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No misspelling variants are generated for whaler in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From whale + -er. In sense 1, displaced Old English hwælhunta (literally “whale hunter”). Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is whaler, spelled W-H-A-L-E-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1One who hunts whales; any person employed in the whaling industry.
- 2A seagoing vessel used for hunting whales.
- 3One who whales (flogs or beats).
- 4A large, strong person.
- 5Something of unusually great size, a whopper, a whacker.
- 6Any shark of the family Carcharhinidae; a requiem shark.
- 7A sundowner; one who cruises about.
Etymology
From whale + -er. In sense 1, displaced Old English hwælhunta (literally “whale hunter”).
This word in other languages
Frequency rank: #62,618 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "whaler"?
What does "whaler" mean?
How do you pronounce "whaler"?
What is the origin of the word "whaler"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter W in our English index: