English homophones
bails/bales
"bales" (#29,926 written frequency) beats "bails" (#49,199) in this 2-word /beɪlz/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /beɪlz/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "bales" leads at #29,926, with "bails" trailing at #49,199.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "ba" then splits - "bails" (5 letters) vs "bales" (5).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across bails, bales: abls. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
bails
5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVVCC
Inventory abils · private i
bales
5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCVC
Inventory abels · private e
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "bails" when you mean: plural of bail
- Write "bales" when you mean: plural of bale
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 (bails, bales). Here's where to go from here.
- "bales" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #29,926 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: breaking · braking. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "bails, bales" 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.