whitespace

noun

"whitespace" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“whitespace” is uncommon English (frequency #78,275 among 12,113 “W” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#78,275
frequency rank, English
12,113
“W” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Alternative form of white space.

Key facts for whitespace
PropertyValue
Headwordwhitespace
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters10
Frequency rank#78,275
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “whitespace” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). whitespace lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

whitespace is uncommon English at frequency #78,275 among 12,113 “W” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Alternative form of white space.".

Zero misspellings are on record for whitespace in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is whitespace, spelled W-H-I-T-E-S-P-A-C-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Alternative form of white space.

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 "whitespace"?
"whitespace" is spelled W-H-I-T-E-S-P-A-C-E.
What does "whitespace" mean?
As a noun, "whitespace" means: Alternative form of white space.
What language does "whitespace" come from?
"whitespace" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “whitespace”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is W-H-I-T-E-S-P-A-C-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words

Other uncommon English words near this rank

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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list