English homophones

bites/bytes

"bites" (#9,708 written frequency) beats "bytes" (#20,578) in this 2-word /baɪts/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.

Data vintage

Frequency splits the cluster

These 2 spellings keep the same /baɪts/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "bites" leads at #9,708, with "bytes" trailing at #20,578.

Spelling pairs in this cluster

  • No shared spelling stem: "bites" is 5 letters, "bytes" is 5; only the sound ties them.

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

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

  • bites

    5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCVC

    Inventory beist · private i

  • bytes

    5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCVC

    Inventory besty · private y

Pick the spelling from the meaning

  • Write "bites" when you mean: plural of bite
  • Write "bytes" when you mean: plural of byte

Known mistypes of these spellings

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

  • bitesbbites · biets · bitess · bitse · bittes · bties
  • bytesbbytes · btyes · byets · bytess · bytse · byttes

Each spelling

bites

noun · /baɪts/ · #9,708 frequency

plural of bite

bytes

noun · /baɪts/ · #20,578 frequency

plural of byte

Nearby English homophone groups

What to do next

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

  • "bites" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #9,708 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: boon · Boone. Nearby cluster
  • Each spelling in "bites, bytes" 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