wheeze
/ʍiːz/
"wheeze" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“wheeze” is uncommon English (frequency #59,811 among 12,113 “W” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #59,811
- frequency rank, English
- 12,113
- “W” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To breathe hard, and with an audible piping or whistling sound, as persons affected with asthma.
| 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) |
Where “wheeze” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
wheeze is uncommon English at frequency #59,811 among 12,113 “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.
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
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Using “wheeze”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-H-E-E-Z-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ʍiːz/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this 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.