English homophones
brakes/breaks
"breaks" (#3,213 written frequency) beats "brakes" (#8,248) in this 2-word /bɹeɪks/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /bɹeɪks/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "breaks" leads at #3,213, with "brakes" trailing at #8,248.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "br" then splits - "brakes" (6 letters) vs "breaks" (6).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across brakes, breaks: abekrs. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
brakes
6 letters · 2 vowels · shape CCVCVC
Inventory abekrs · no private letters vs siblings
breaks
6 letters · 2 vowels · shape CCVVCC
Inventory abekrs · no private letters vs siblings
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "brakes" when you mean: plural of brake
- Write "breaks" when you mean: plural of break
Known mistypes of these spellings
Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (brakes, breaks). Here's where to go from here.
- "breaks" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #3,213 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: break · brake. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "brakes, breaks" 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.