English homophones
cites/sites
"sites" (#1,878 written frequency) beats "cites" (#12,742) in this 2-word /saɪts/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /saɪts/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "sites" leads at #1,878, with "cites" trailing at #12,742.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- No shared spelling stem: "cites" is 5 letters, "sites" is 5; only the sound ties them.
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across cites, sites: eist. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
cites
5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCVC
Inventory ceist · private c
sites
5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCVC
Inventory eist · no private letters vs siblings
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "cites" when you mean: plural of cite
- Write "sites" when you mean: plural of site
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
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (cites, sites). Here's where to go from here.
- "sites" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #1,878 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: coup · coo. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "cites, sites" 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.