English homophones

Cain/cane/kain/Kaine/Kane

"Cain" is a name; "cane" is a noun - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #2 of 1,007 English groups.

Data vintage 2026-09-03

Grammar picks the spelling

Same sound, different grammar: "Cain" arrives as a name, while "cane" is a noun. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.

Spelling pairs in this cluster

Shared stem "ca" then splits - "Cain" (4 letters) vs "cane" (4).
No shared spelling stem: "Cain" is 4 letters, "kain" is 4; only the sound ties them.
No shared spelling stem: "Cain" is 4 letters, "Kaine" is 5; only the sound ties them.
No shared spelling stem: "Cain" is 4 letters, "Kane" is 4; only the sound ties them.
No shared spelling stem: "cane" is 4 letters, "kain" is 4; only the sound ties them.
No shared spelling stem: "cane" is 4 letters, "Kaine" is 5; only the sound ties them.
No shared spelling stem: "cane" is 4 letters, "Kane" is 4; only the sound ties them.
Shared stem "kain" then splits - "kain" (4 letters) vs "Kaine" (5).
Shared stem "ka" then splits - "kain" (4 letters) vs "Kane" (4).
Shared stem "ka" then splits - "Kaine" (5 letters) vs "Kane" (4).

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

Shared letters across Cain, cane, kain, Kaine, Kane: an. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

Cain
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVVC
Inventory acin · private ci
cane
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCV
Inventory acen · private ce
kain
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVVC
Inventory aikn · private ik
Kaine
5 letters · 3 vowels · shape CVVCV
Inventory aeikn · private eik
Kane
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCV
Inventory aekn · private ek

Pick the spelling from the meaning

Write "Cain" when you mean: The son of Adam and Eve who killed his brother Abel.
Write "cane" when you mean: A plant with simple stems, like bamboo or sugar cane, or the stem thereof:
Write "kain" when you mean: poultry, etc., required by the lease to be paid in kind by a tenant to the landlord.
Write "Kaine" when you mean: A surname.
Write "Kane" when you mean: A surname from Irish.

Known mistypes of these spellings

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

Cain ← acin · cainn · cani · ccain · cian
cane ← canne · ccane · cnae
kain ← kainn · kani · kian · kkain
Kaine ← akine · kaien · kainne · kanie · kiane · kkaine
Kane ← akne · kaen · kanne · kkane · knae

Each spelling

Cain

name · /keɪn/ · #14,081 frequency

The son of Adam and Eve who killed his brother Abel.

cane

noun · /keɪn/ · #10,175 frequency

A plant with simple stems, like bamboo or sugar cane, or the stem thereof:

kain

noun · /keɪn/ · #45,462 frequency

poultry, etc., required by the lease to be paid in kind by a tenant to the landlord.

Kaine

name · /keɪn/ · #35,796 frequency

A surname.

Kane

name · /keɪn/ · #7,705 frequency

A surname from Irish.

Nearby English homophone groups

What to do next

You've reviewed the 5-spelling cluster (Cain, cane, kain, Kaine, Kane). Here's where to go from here.

"Kane" is the most frequent headword in this 5-spelling cluster (rank #7,705 in English). Full entry
Among English homophone groups, a cluster of 5 spellings ranks #2 by size (1,007 groups in this vintage). Corpus statistics
Explore a nearby 5-spelling cluster: done · Dunn · dun · Dunne · Donne. 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.