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PlainSpell

which

/wɪt͡ʃ/determiner, pronoun, conjunction

which is spelled W-H-I-C-H. The wrong spelling people search most is whitch: about 350 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 22 of all searches for the word. Which is a determiner meaning “What, of those mentioned or implied”.

How many letters and syllables are in which?

Letters5: W-H-I-C-H
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing1,995 times per million words; the 60th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched3; the most searched, whitch, about 350 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Pairs people search
Sounds like

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; 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).

How do you spell which?

Which is spelled W-H-I-C-H. 3 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 20 of the searches for which in either form.

whichthe right spelling7,480 searches a month
whitchan extra t350 searches a month
whcihi and c swapped20 searches a month
whihcc and h swapped20 searches a month

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). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is which?

Which appears 1,995 times per million words in written English, the 60th 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 which?

  • /wɪt͡ʃ/
  • /ʍɪt͡ʃ/

Which has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-which.ogg, En-uk-which.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with which

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

which vs witch1,300 G

Sounds like: witch, wych (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).

Forms of which

  • wich

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does which mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

determiner

  1. 1

    What, of those mentioned or implied.

    Which song shall we play?

  2. 2

    The/Any ... that; whichever.

    Take which one you want.

  3. 3

    Designates the one(s) previously mentioned.

    After glaring upon the smoking philosopher, who took his misfortunes with such positive nonchalance, he growled out an oath in German, which language is particularly adapted for growling in; then, raising his hand, he dealt him a blow on hi

pronoun

  1. 1

    What one or ones (of those mentioned or implied).

    Which is which?

  2. 2

    The/Any ones that; whichever.

    Please take which you please.

  3. 3

    Referring to a preceding noun.

    I dropped a saucepan, which knocked over the eggs, which went all over the kitchen floor.

  4. 4

    archaicUsed of people (now generally who, whom, that; which remains possible with words also referred to by it such as baby, child).

    She had a young child, which cried incessantly.

  5. 5

    Referring to a preceding statement.

    The front door was open, which concerned me.

  6. 6

    proscribedIn a restrictive relative clause, referring to a noun previously mentioned.

    This is the letter which I received.

  7. 7

    archaicproscribedUsed of people.

conjunction

  1. 1

    colloquialproscribedIntroduces an anacoluthon.

  2. 2

    nonstandardAnd.

    They only offered me five dollars, which I wouldn’t do it for less than fifteen.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate which?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of which: wch.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Which in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchquel, quelle, quels, quelles ((interrogative) what, of those mentioned or…), lequel, laquelle ((relative) designating the one(s) mentioned)
Germanwelcher, welche, welches ((interrogative) what, of those mentioned or…), der ((relative) who, whom, what)
Portuguesequal ((interrogative) what, of those mentioned or…), o qual, os quais, a qual, as quais ((relative) designating the one(s) mentioned), que ((relative) who, whom, what)
Spanishcuál, cuáles ((interrogative) what, of those mentioned or…), cual, cuales ((relative) designating the one(s) mentioned), quien, que ((relative) who, whom, what)

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.

Where does which come from?

From Middle English which, hwic, wilche, hwilch, whilk, hwilc, from Old English hwelċ (“which”), from Proto-Germanic *hwilīkaz (“what kind”, literally “like what”), derived from *hwaz.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after which