English homophones
aid/aide
"aid" (#1,808 written frequency) beats "aide" (#11,335) in this 2-word /eɪd/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /eɪd/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "aid" leads at #1,808, with "aide" trailing at #11,335.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "aid" then splits - "aid" (3 letters) vs "aide" (4).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across aid, aide: adi. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
aid
3 letters · 2 vowels · shape VVC
Inventory adi · no private letters vs siblings
aide
4 letters · 3 vowels · shape VVCV
Inventory adei · private e
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "aid" when you mean: Help; assistance; succor, relief.
- Write "aide" when you mean: An assistant.
Known mistypes of these spellings
Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.
- aide ← adie · aied · iade
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (aid, aide). Here's where to go from here.
- "aid" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #1,808 in English). Full entry
- Among English homophone groups, a cluster of 2 spellings ranks #133 by size (1,007 groups in this vintage). Corpus statistics
- Explore a nearby 2-spelling cluster: airs · Ayres. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "aid, aide" has its own headword page with definition, IPA, and misspelling variants. First entry
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.