English homophones
boy/buoy
"boy" (#688 written frequency) beats "buoy" (#28,856) in this 2-word /bɔɪ/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /bɔɪ/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "boy" leads at #688, with "buoy" trailing at #28,856.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- No shared spelling stem: "boy" is 3 letters, "buoy" is 4; only the sound ties them.
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across boy, buoy: boy. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
boy
3 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVV
Inventory boy · no private letters vs siblings
buoy
4 letters · 3 vowels · shape CVVV
Inventory bouy · private u
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "boy" when you mean: A male child.
- Write "buoy" when you mean: A float moored in water to mark a location, warn of danger, indicate a navigational channel or for other purposes
Known mistypes of these spellings
Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.
- buoy ← bbuoy · bouy · buoyy · buyo · uboy
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (boy, buoy). Here's where to go from here.
- "boy" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #688 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: butte · beaut. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "boy, buoy" 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.