English homophones

aam/alm/arm

"arm" (#1,887 written frequency) beats "aam" (#37,305) in this 3-word /ɑːm/ cluster. Size rank #30 of 1,007 English groups.

Data vintage

Frequency splits the cluster

These 3 spellings keep the same /ɑːm/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "arm" leads at #1,887, with "aam" trailing at #37,305.

Spelling pairs in this cluster

  • No shared spelling stem: "aam" is 3 letters, "alm" is 3; only the sound ties them.
  • No shared spelling stem: "aam" is 3 letters, "arm" is 3; only the sound ties them.
  • No shared spelling stem: "alm" is 3 letters, "arm" is 3; only the sound ties them.

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

Shared letters across aam, alm, arm: am. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

  • aam

    3 letters · 2 vowels · shape VVC

    Inventory am · no private letters vs siblings

  • alm

    3 letters · 1 vowels · shape VCC

    Inventory alm · private l

  • arm

    3 letters · 1 vowels · shape VCC

    Inventory amr · private r

Pick the spelling from the meaning

  • Write "aam" when you mean: A Dutch and German measure of liquids, used in England for Rhine wine, varying in different cities, being in Amsterdam about 41 wine gall…
  • Write "alm" when you mean: Something given to the poor as charity: a singular gift of alms.
  • Write "arm" when you mean: The portion of the upper human appendage, from the shoulder to the wrist and sometimes including the hand.

Each spelling

aam

noun · /ɑːm/ · #37,305 frequency

A Dutch and German measure of liquids, used in England for Rhine wine, varying in different cities, being in Amsterdam about 41 wine gallons, in Antwerp 36½, and in Hamburg 38¼.

alm

noun · /ɑːm/ · #43,024 frequency

Something given to the poor as charity: a singular gift of alms.

arm

noun · /ɑːm/ · #1,887 frequency

The portion of the upper human appendage, from the shoulder to the wrist and sometimes including the hand.

Nearby English homophone groups

What to do next

You've reviewed the 3-spelling cluster (aam, alm, arm). Here's where to go from here.

  • "arm" is the most frequent headword in this 3-spelling cluster (rank #1,887 in English). Full entry
  • Among English homophone groups, a cluster of 3 spellings ranks #30 by size (1,007 groups in this vintage). Corpus statistics
  • Explore a nearby 3-spelling cluster: i · eye · ay. Nearby cluster
  • Each spelling in "aam, alm, arm" 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list