English homophones

bait/bate

"bait" is a noun; "bate" is a verb - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.

Data vintage 2026-09-03

Grammar picks the spelling

Same sound, different grammar: "bait" arrives as a noun, while "bate" is a verb. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.

Shared letters across bait, bate: abt. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

Write "bait" when you mean: Any substance, especially food, used in catching fish, or other animals, by alluring them to a hook, snare, trap, or net.
Write "bate" when you mean: To reduce the force of something; to abate.

Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.

noun · /beɪt/ · #8,894 frequency

Any substance, especially food, used in catching fish, or other animals, by alluring them to a hook, snare, trap, or net.

verb · /beɪt/ · #38,748 frequency

To reduce the force of something; to abate.

What to do next

You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (bait, bate). Here's where to go from here.

"bait" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #8,894 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: brooch · broach. Nearby cluster
Grammar often disambiguates this cluster, match the meaning to the part of speech before picking a spelling. Pick by meaning

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.