English homophones

check/cheque/Czech

"check" is a noun; "Czech" is an adjective - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #30 of 1,007 English groups.

Data vintage 2026-09-03

Grammar picks the spelling

Same sound, different grammar: "check" arrives as a noun, while "Czech" is an adjective. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.

Spelling pairs in this cluster

Shared stem "che" then splits - "check" (5 letters) vs "cheque" (6).
No shared spelling stem: "check" is 5 letters, "Czech" is 5; only the sound ties them.
No shared spelling stem: "cheque" is 6 letters, "Czech" is 5; only the sound ties them.

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

Shared letters across check, cheque, Czech: ceh. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

check
5 letters · 1 vowels · shape CCVCC
Inventory cehk · private k
cheque
6 letters · 3 vowels · shape CCVCVV
Inventory cehqu · private qu
Czech
5 letters · 1 vowels · shape CCVCC
Inventory cehz · private z

Pick the spelling from the meaning

Write "check" when you mean: An inspection or examination.
Write "cheque" when you mean: A written order directing a bank to pay money to a person or entity.
Write "Czech" when you mean: Of, from, or pertaining to the Czech Republic (Czechia), the Czech people, culture, or language.

Known mistypes of these spellings

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

check ← ccheck · cehck · chcek · checck · checkk · chekc
cheque ← ccheque · cehque · cheqeu · cheqque · cheuqe · chheque
Czech ← cczech · cezch · czceh · czecch · czechh · czehc

Each spelling

check

noun · /t͡ʃɛk/ · #487 frequency

An inspection or examination.

cheque

noun · /t͡ʃɛk/ · #15,124 frequency

A written order directing a bank to pay money to a person or entity.

Czech

adjective · /t͡ʃɛk/ · #7,671 frequency

Of, from, or pertaining to the Czech Republic (Czechia), the Czech people, culture, or language.

Nearby English homophone groups

What to do next

You've reviewed the 3-spelling cluster (check, cheque, Czech). Here's where to go from here.

"check" is the most frequent headword in this 3-spelling cluster (rank #487 in English). Full entry
Among English homophone groups, a cluster of 3 spellings ranks #30 by size (1,007 groups in this vintage). Corpus statistics
Explore a nearby 3-spelling cluster: shoe · chou · shoo. 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.