Whisky (or whiskey) is an alcoholic beverage distilled from grain, often including malt, which has then been aged in wooden barrels.
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The spelling "Whisky" is generally used for those distilled in Scotland and Canada, while "whiskey" (with an "e") is used for the spirits distilled in the United States and Ireland, but there are exceptions. The Welsh version is wysgi. The name evolved from the Gaelic uisge beatha (water of life). (Other countries also have their own "water of life": see the Danish Akvavit, derived from the Latin aqua vitae.)
Whisky is drunk straight, with water or ice, or mixed with other spirits.
Whisky is sold in several styles. Malt whisky consists of whisky made from 100 percent malted grain, and malt whisky from one distillery, rather than blended, is called single malt. The grains used to make malt whisky include barley in Scotland, Ireland, Canada, and the United States; rye in Canada and the United States; and corn in the United States (Bourbon whiskey, by law, must be at least 51%, but not over 80%, corn in its mash). Pure pot still whiskey is made in Ireland from a combination of malted and unmalted barley. Various types of straight whiskey, such as Rye whiskey, Tennessee whiskey, and Bourbon whiskey are produced in the U.S. which are aged in new, charred, oak barrels. Blended whisky is made from a combination of any of the above whiskies with the similar grain whisky or neutral grain spirits, which are much less expensive to produce than the other types of whisky.
At one time much of the whiskey produced in the U.S. was "Bottled-in-Bond" according to the dictates of an 1898 Act of Congress; this practice has been largely discontinued, because one of the requirements of the Act was that such whiskey be produced at 100 U.S. alcoholic proof (50% alcohol by volume). Little whiskey this potent is produced in the U.S. anymore, partially because of changing public tastes but also because an alcoholic content so high is illegal in many countries, notably Canada, limiting the export market for it.
Whiskey is also the letter W in the NATO phonetic alphabet