English homophones
bail/bale
"bail" (#6,988 written frequency) beats "bale" (#12,731) in this 2-word /beɪl/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /beɪl/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "bail" leads at #6,988, with "bale" trailing at #12,731.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "ba" then splits - "bail" (4 letters) vs "bale" (4).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across bail, bale: abl. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
bail
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVVC
Inventory abil · private i
bale
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCV
Inventory abel · private e
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "bail" when you mean: Security, usually a sum of money, exchanged for the release of an arrested person as a guarantee of that person's appearance for trial.
- Write "bale" when you mean: Evil, especially considered as an active force for destruction or death.
Known mistypes of these spellings
Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (bail, bale). Here's where to go from here.
- "bail" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #6,988 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: bear · bare. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "bail, bale" 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.