English homophones
Derek/derrick
"Derek" is a name; "derrick" is a noun - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Grammar picks the spelling
Same sound, different grammar: "Derek" arrives as a name, while "derrick" is a noun. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "der" then splits - "Derek" (5 letters) vs "derrick" (7).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across Derek, derrick: dekr. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
Derek
5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCVC
Inventory dekr · no private letters vs siblings
derrick
7 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCCVCC
Inventory cdeikr · private ci
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "Derek" when you mean: A male given name from the Germanic languages.
- Write "derrick" when you mean: A device that is used for lifting and moving large objects.
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 (Derek, derrick). Here's where to go from here.
- "Derek" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #7,005 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: defense · defence. Nearby cluster
- Grammar often disambiguates this cluster, match the meaning to the part of speech before picking a spelling. Pick by meaning
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.