English homophones
bailey/baillie
"bailey" (#6,439 written frequency) beats "baillie" (#38,297) in this 2-word /ˈbeɪli/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /ˈbeɪli/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "bailey" leads at #6,439, with "baillie" trailing at #38,297.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "bail" then splits - "bailey" (6 letters) vs "baillie" (7).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across bailey, baillie: abeil. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
bailey
6 letters · 4 vowels · shape CVVCVV
Inventory abeily · private y
baillie
7 letters · 4 vowels · shape CVVCCVV
Inventory abeil · no private letters vs siblings
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "bailey" when you mean: The outer wall of a feudal castle.
- Write "baillie" when you mean: The jurisdiction of a bailie or bailiff; a bailiwick.
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 (bailey, baillie). Here's where to go from here.
- "bailey" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #6,439 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: bores · boars. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "bailey, baillie" 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.