wherry
/ˈʍɛɹi/
"wherry" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“wherry” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A boat or light ship used to navigate inland waterways.
Corpus desk
Index EN-wherry · wherry · English
wherry · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "W" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | wherry |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈʍɛɹi/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “wherry” in English
Rare enough to double-check
wherry is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈʍɛɹi/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
wherry has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English whery (“small boat”), of obscure origin but cognate to French houari and Breton ouari, as well as Welsh chweri (“small boat”). The correct English form is wherry, spelled W-H-E-R-R-Y.
Definition
- 1A boat or light ship used to navigate inland waterways.
- 2A flat-bottomed vessel once employed by British merchants, notably in East Anglia, sometimes converted into pleasure boats.
- 3A liquor made from the pulp of crab-apples after the verjuice is extracted.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how wherry appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
O how I should like to see her floating in the water yonder, turban and all, with her train streaming after her, and her nose like the beak of a wherry.
He went out for Freshman rowing but didn't make any of the crews and took to rowing by himself in a wherry three afternoons a week.
Etymology
From Middle English whery (“small boat”), of obscure origin but cognate to French houari and Breton ouari, as well as Welsh chweri (“small boat”).
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.