English homophones
canvas/canvass
"canvas" is a noun; "canvass" is a verb - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Grammar picks the spelling
Same sound, different grammar: "canvas" arrives as a noun, while "canvass" is a verb. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "canvas" then splits - "canvas" (6 letters) vs "canvass" (7).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across canvas, canvass: acnsv. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
canvas
6 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCCVC
Inventory acnsv · no private letters vs siblings
canvass
7 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCCVCC
Inventory acnsv · no private letters vs siblings
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "canvas" when you mean: A type of coarse cloth, woven from hemp (traditionally) or from cotton and polyesters, useful for making sails, tents, and overcoats or a…
- Write "canvass" when you mean: To thoroughly examine or investigate (something) physically or by discussion; to debate, to gather opinion, to scrutinize.
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
noun · /ˈkænvəs/ · #7,532 frequency
A type of coarse cloth, woven from hemp (traditionally) or from cotton and polyesters, useful for making sails, tents, and overcoats or as a surface for paintings.
verb · /ˈkænvəs/ · #36,475 frequency
To thoroughly examine or investigate (something) physically or by discussion; to debate, to gather opinion, to scrutinize.
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (canvas, canvass). Here's where to go from here.
- "canvas" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #7,532 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: court · caught. 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.