English homophones

cymbal/symbol

"symbol" (#4,274 written frequency) beats "cymbal" (#47,558) in this 2-word /ˈsɪmbəl/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.

Data vintage

Frequency splits the cluster

These 2 spellings keep the same /ˈsɪmbəl/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "symbol" leads at #4,274, with "cymbal" trailing at #47,558.

Spelling pairs in this cluster

  • No shared spelling stem: "cymbal" is 6 letters, "symbol" is 6; only the sound ties them.

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

Shared letters across cymbal, symbol: blmy. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

  • cymbal

    6 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCCVC

    Inventory abclmy · private ac

  • symbol

    6 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCCVC

    Inventory blmosy · private os

Pick the spelling from the meaning

  • Write "cymbal" when you mean: A concave plate of metal, usually brass or bronze, that produces a sharp, ringing sound when struck: played either in pairs, by striking …
  • Write "symbol" when you mean: A character or glyph representing an idea, concept or object.

Known mistypes of these spellings

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

  • cymbalccymbal · cmybal · cybmal · cymabl · cymball · cymbbal
  • symbolsmybol · ssymbol · sybmol · symbbol · symblo · symboll

Each spelling

cymbal

noun · /ˈsɪmbəl/ · #47,558 frequency

A concave plate of metal, usually brass or bronze, that produces a sharp, ringing sound when struck: played either in pairs, by striking them together, or singly by striking with a drumstick or the like.

symbol

noun · /ˈsɪmbəl/ · #4,274 frequency

A character or glyph representing an idea, concept or object.

Nearby English homophone groups

What to do next

You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (cymbal, symbol). Here's where to go from here.

  • "symbol" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #4,274 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: Columbia · Colombia. Nearby cluster
  • Each spelling in "cymbal, symbol" 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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list