English homophones
bur/burr
"burr" (#18,031 written frequency) beats "bur" (#39,230) in this 2-word /bɝ/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /bɝ/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "burr" leads at #18,031, with "bur" trailing at #39,230.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "bur" then splits - "bur" (3 letters) vs "burr" (4).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across bur, burr: bru. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
bur
3 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVC
Inventory bru · no private letters vs siblings
burr
4 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVCC
Inventory bru · no private letters vs siblings
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "bur" when you mean: A rough, prickly husk around the seeds or fruit of some plants.
- Write "burr" when you mean: A sharp, pointy object, such as a sliver or splinter.
Known mistypes of these spellings
Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.
- burr ← bburr · brur · ubrr
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (bur, burr). Here's where to go from here.
- "burr" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #18,031 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: bay · bey. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "bur, burr" 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.