English homophones
coals/coles
"coles" (#23,786 written frequency) beats "coals" (#29,600) in this 2-word /kəʊlz/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /kəʊlz/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "coles" leads at #23,786, with "coals" trailing at #29,600.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "co" then splits - "coals" (5 letters) vs "coles" (5).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across coals, coles: clos. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
coals
5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVVCC
Inventory aclos · private a
coles
5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCVC
Inventory celos · private e
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "coals" when you mean: plural of coal
- Write "coles" when you mean: plural of cole
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 (coals, coles). Here's where to go from here.
- "coles" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #23,786 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: Kerr · cur. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "coals, coles" 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.