English homophones

beat/beet

"beat" (#1,042 written frequency) beats "beet" (#27,068) in this 2-word /biːt/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.

Data vintage

Frequency splits the cluster

These 2 spellings keep the same /biːt/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "beat" leads at #1,042, with "beet" trailing at #27,068.

Spelling pairs in this cluster

  • Shared stem "be" then splits - "beat" (4 letters) vs "beet" (4).

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

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

  • beat

    4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVVC

    Inventory abet · private a

  • beet

    4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVVC

    Inventory bet · no private letters vs siblings

Pick the spelling from the meaning

  • Write "beat" when you mean: A stroke; a blow.
  • Write "beet" when you mean: Beta vulgaris, a plant with a swollen root which is eaten or used to make sugar.

Known mistypes of these spellings

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

  • beatbaet · bbeat · beatt · ebat
  • beetbbeet · beett · ebet

Each spelling

beat

noun · /biːt/ · #1,042 frequency

A stroke; a blow.

beet

noun · /biːt/ · #27,068 frequency

Beta vulgaris, a plant with a swollen root which is eaten or used to make sugar.

Nearby English homophone groups

What to do next

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

  • "beat" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #1,042 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: build · billed. Nearby cluster
  • Each spelling in "beat, beet" 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