whisker
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
7 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "whisker", 7-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "whisker" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "whisker" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
whisker is aEnglishnoun. It means: That part of the beard which grows upon the sides of the face, usually of the male, or upon the chin, or upon both. Pronounced /ʍɪskə(ɹ)/. Often confused with wiser and whisky.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | whisker |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ʍɪskə(ɹ)/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #49,721 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for whisker is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ʍɪskə(ɹ)/. Corpus data places it at rank #49,721 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 11 documented wrong-spelling variants for whisker, with forms such as "hwisker", "whhisker", and "whikser". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 9 confusable-pair relationships, "wiser", "whisky", "wicker", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Inherited from Middle English wisker, whisk (verb) + -er. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is whisker, spelled W-H-I-S-K-E-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1That part of the beard which grows upon the sides of the face, usually of the male, or upon the chin, or upon both.
- 2A hair of the beard.
- 3One of the long, projecting hairs growing at the sides of the mouth of a cat, or other animal.
- 4The (very small) distance between two things.
- 5Spreaders from the bows to spread the bowsprit shrouds.
- 6A graphic element that shows the maxima and minima in a box plot.
- 7One who, or that which, whisks, or moves with a quick, sweeping motion.
- 8A small tendril that forms on metal.
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English wisker, whisk (verb) + -er.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hwisker,whhisker,whikser,whisekr,whiskerr,whiskker,whiskre,whissker,whsiker,wihsker,wwhisker
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for whisker
Misspelling Variants of "whisker"
Frequency rank: #49,721 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter W in our English index: