whisky
/ˈwɪski/
"whisky" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“whisky” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #12,530 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #12,530
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 7
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Alternative form of whiskey, an alcoholic liquor distilled from fermented grain, usually aged in oak barrels, (particularly) Scotch; a drink of this liquor.
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 | whisky |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈwɪski/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #12,530 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “whisky” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for whisky is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈwɪski/. Corpus data places it at rank #12,530 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Alternative form of whiskey, an alcoholic liquor distilled from fermented grain, usually aged in oak barrels, (particularly) Scotch; a drink of this liquor.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for whisky, with forms such as "hwisky", "whhisky", and "whiksy". 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 7 confusable-pair relationships, "whitey", "Whitby", "whisk", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Variant of usque, abbreviation of usquebaugh (compare obsolete whiskybae), from Scottish Gaelic uisge-beatha (“water of life”), calque of Medieval Latin aqua vitae. Compare akvavit, aquavit, aqua vitae, eau de vie, and water of life from the same source. The correct English form is whisky, spelled W-H-I-S-K-Y.
Definition
- 1Alternative form of whiskey, an alcoholic liquor distilled from fermented grain, usually aged in oak barrels, (particularly) Scotch; a drink of this liquor.
Etymology
Variant of usque, abbreviation of usquebaugh (compare obsolete whiskybae), from Scottish Gaelic uisge-beatha (“water of life”), calque of Medieval Latin aqua vitae. Compare akvavit, aquavit, aqua vitae, eau de vie, and water of life from the same source.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hwisky,whhisky,whiksy,whiskky,whiskyy,whissky,whisyk,whsiky,wihsky,wwhisky
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of whisky - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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
How do you spell "whisky"?
What does "whisky" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "whisky"?
How do you pronounce "whisky"?
What is the origin of the word "whisky"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “whisky”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-H-I-S-K-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈwɪski/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “whitey” - see the side-by-side comparison. whisky vs whitey
- 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.