English homophones
del/dell
"del" (#4,150 written frequency) beats "dell" (#11,677) in this 2-word /dɛl/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /dɛl/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "del" leads at #4,150, with "dell" trailing at #11,677.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "del" then splits - "del" (3 letters) vs "dell" (4).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across del, dell: del. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
del
3 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVC
Inventory del · no private letters vs siblings
dell
4 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVCC
Inventory del · no private letters vs siblings
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "del" when you mean: The symbol ∇ used to denote the gradient operator.
- Write "dell" when you mean: A small, deep, and wooded valley or sunken area of ground, especially in the form of a natural hollow.
Known mistypes of these spellings
Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.
- dell ← ddell · dlel · edll
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (del, dell). Here's where to go from here.
- "del" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #4,150 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: Derek · derrick. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "del, dell" 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.