English homophones
carb/cob
"carb" (#18,780 written frequency) beats "cob" (#27,404) in this 2-word /kɑːb/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /kɑːb/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "carb" leads at #18,780, with "cob" trailing at #27,404.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- No shared spelling stem: "carb" is 4 letters, "cob" is 3; only the sound ties them.
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across carb, cob: bc. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
carb
4 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVCC
Inventory abcr · private ar
cob
3 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVC
Inventory bco · private o
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "carb" when you mean: Clipping of carbohydrate
- Write "cob" when you mean: A corncob.
Known mistypes of these spellings
Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.
- carb ← acrb · cabr · carbb · carrb · ccarb
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (carb, cob). Here's where to go from here.
- "carb" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #18,780 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: canine · K9. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "carb, cob" 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.