wheeze
/ʍiːz/
"wheeze" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“wheeze” is uncommon English (frequency #59,811 among 1,759 “W” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #59,811
- frequency rank, English
- 1,759
- “W” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To breathe hard, and with an audible piping or whistling sound, as persons affected with asthma.
Corpus desk
Index EN-wheeze · wheeze · English
wheeze · rank #59,811 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #59,811
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,759
- PHOTO-FINISH Whaley
Nearest frequency peer: Whaley (-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.
Long-tail ranks near “wheeze”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- weekender
weekender
40,195 corpus weight
- weeklong
weeklong
40,194 corpus weight
- Whaley
Whaley
40,191 corpus weight
- wheeze
wheeze
40,190 corpus weight
- whist
whist
40,189 corpus weight
- woozy
woozy
40,185 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “wheeze” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | wheeze |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ʍiːz/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #59,811 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “wheeze” in English
Rare enough to double-check
wheeze is uncommon English at frequency #59,811 among 1,759 “W” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /ʍiːz/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for wheeze in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English whesen, perhaps from Old Norse hvæsa (“to hiss”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱwes- (“to pant”). The correct English form is wheeze, spelled W-H-E-E-Z-E.
Definition
- 1To breathe hard, and with an audible piping or whistling sound, as persons affected with asthma.
- 2To convulse with laughter; to become breathless due to intense laughing.
- 3To make a sound that resembles the sound of human wheezing.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how wheeze appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
If the air smelled even faintly of dog, Lionel coughed, wheezed and sneezed.
Mrs. Hearty began to shake and wheeze with laughter, and Millie stood looking at Bindle.
Etymology
From Middle English whesen, perhaps from Old Norse hvæsa (“to hiss”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱwes- (“to pant”).
This word in other languages
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
How do you spell "wheeze"?
What does "wheeze" mean?
How do you pronounce "wheeze"?
What is the origin of the word "wheeze"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "wheeze", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).