English homophones
defence/defense
"defense" (#1,247 written frequency) beats "defence" (#2,940) in this 2-word /dɪˈfɛns/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /dɪˈfɛns/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "defense" leads at #1,247, with "defence" trailing at #2,940.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "defen" then splits - "defence" (7 letters) vs "defense" (7).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across defence, defense: defn. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
defence
7 letters · 3 vowels · shape CVCVCCV
Inventory cdefn · private c
defense
7 letters · 3 vowels · shape CVCVCCV
Inventory defns · private s
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "defence" when you mean: The action of defending, of protecting from attack, danger or injury.
- Write "defense" when you mean: The action of defending or protecting from attack, danger, or injury.
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 (defence, defense). Here's where to go from here.
- "defense" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #1,247 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: Denison · Dennison. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "defence, defense" 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.