which
/wɪt͡ʃ/
"which" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“which” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #59 in English word frequency and used as a conjunction.
- #59
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - And.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | which |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Conjunction |
| IPA | /wɪt͡ʃ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #59 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “which” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for which is 5 letters long, classified as a conjunction, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /wɪt͡ʃ/. Corpus data places it at rank #59 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "And.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for which, with forms such as "hwich", "whcih", and "whhich". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "WIC", "with", "wish", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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. By surface analysis, who + like. Cognates include Scots whilk (“which”),… The correct English form is which, spelled W-H-I-C-H.
Definition
- 1And.
Etymology
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. By surface analysis, who + like. Cognates include Scots whilk (“which”), West Frisian hokker (“which”), Dutch welk (“which”), Low German welk (“which”), German welcher (“which”), Danish hvilken (“which”), Swedish vilken (“which”), Norwegian hvilken (“which”), Icelandic hvílíkur (“which”).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hwich,whcih,whhich,whicch,whichh,whihc,wihch,wwhich
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of which - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “which”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-H-I-C-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /wɪt͡ʃ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “WIC” - see the side-by-side comparison. which vs WIC
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.