whos
/huːz/
"whos" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“whos” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #27,029. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #27,029
- frequency rank, English
- 1,759
- “W” headwords
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - plural of who; often used along with whats, whys, hows, etc.
Corpus desk
Index EN-whos · whos · English
whos · rank #27,029 · 6 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #27,029
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 6 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,759
- PHOTO-FINISH whiplash
Nearest frequency peer: whiplash (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “whos”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- weirdly
weirdly
72,975 corpus weight
- where'd
where'd
72,974 corpus weight
- whiplash
whiplash
72,973 corpus weight
- whos
whos
72,972 corpus weight
- wildcat
wildcat
72,971 corpus weight
- woodworking
woodworking
72,970 corpus weight
What this shows “whos” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | whos |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /huːz/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #27,029 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “whos”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 6 spelling variants around whos (IPA /huːz/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #27,029 among 1,759 “W” headwords. Dominant gloss: "plural of who; often used along with whats, whys, hows, etc.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for whos, with forms such as "hwos", "whhos", and "whoss". 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, "wo", "WS", "why", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is whos, spelled W-H-O-S.
Definition
- 1plural of who; often used along with whats, whys, hows, etc.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how whos appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Closing of Duffy trial takes proceedings from the whos and whats to why and how.
The whos and wheres and whens and whats of his expenses were the meat of the weeks of testimony that dragged on far longer than anyone expected
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- hwos
- whhos
- whoss
- whso
- wohs
- wwhos
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of whos - 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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "whos", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).