English homophones

bis/buys

"buys" (#7,892 written frequency) beats "bis" (#18,497) in this 2-word /baɪz/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.

Data vintage

Frequency splits the cluster

These 2 spellings keep the same /baɪz/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "buys" leads at #7,892, with "bis" trailing at #18,497.

Spelling pairs in this cluster

  • No shared spelling stem: "bis" is 3 letters, "buys" is 4; only the sound ties them.

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

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

  • bis

    3 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVC

    Inventory bis · private i

  • buys

    4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVVC

    Inventory bsuy · private uy

Pick the spelling from the meaning

  • Write "bis" when you mean: plural of bi
  • Write "buys" when you mean: plural of buy

Known mistypes of these spellings

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

  • buysbbuys · buyss · buyys · byus · ubys

Each spelling

bis

noun · /baɪz/ · #18,497 frequency

plural of bi

buys

noun · /baɪz/ · #7,892 frequency

plural of buy

Nearby English homophone groups

What to do next

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

  • "buys" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #7,892 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 "bis, buys" 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