English homophones

bight/bite/byte

"bight" is a noun; "bite" is a verb - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #30 of 1,007 English groups.

Data vintage 2026-09-03

Grammar picks the spelling

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

Spelling pairs in this cluster

Shared stem "bi" then splits - "bight" (5 letters) vs "bite" (4).
No shared spelling stem: "bight" is 5 letters, "byte" is 4; only the sound ties them.
No shared spelling stem: "bite" is 4 letters, "byte" is 4; only the sound ties them.

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

Shared letters across bight, bite, byte: bt. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

bight
5 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVCCC
Inventory bghit · private ghi
bite
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCV
Inventory beit · private ei
byte
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCV
Inventory bety · private ey

Pick the spelling from the meaning

Write "bight" when you mean: A corner, bend, or angle; a hollow
Write "bite" when you mean: To cut into something by clamping the teeth.
Write "byte" when you mean: A short sequence of bits (binary digits) that can be operated on as a unit by a computer; the smallest usable machine word.

Known mistypes of these spellings

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

bight ← bbight · bgiht · bigght · bighht · bightt · bigth
bite ← bbite · biet · bitte · btie · ibte
byte ← bbyte · btye · byet · bytte · byyte · ybte

Each spelling

bight

noun · /baɪt/ · #43,057 frequency

A corner, bend, or angle; a hollow

bite

verb · /baɪt/ · #4,213 frequency

To cut into something by clamping the teeth.

byte

noun · /baɪt/ · #23,771 frequency

A short sequence of bits (binary digits) that can be operated on as a unit by a computer; the smallest usable machine word.

Nearby English homophone groups

What to do next

You've reviewed the 3-spelling cluster (bight, bite, byte). Here's where to go from here.

"bite" is the most frequent headword in this 3-spelling cluster (rank #4,213 in English). Full entry
Among English homophone groups, a cluster of 3 spellings ranks #30 by size (1,007 groups in this vintage). Corpus statistics
Explore a nearby 3-spelling cluster: bree · brie · Bri. 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.