English homophones
dike/dyke
"dyke" (#17,827 written frequency) beats "dike" (#34,858) in this 2-word /daɪk/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /daɪk/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "dyke" leads at #17,827, with "dike" trailing at #34,858.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- No shared spelling stem: "dike" is 4 letters, "dyke" is 4; only the sound ties them.
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across dike, dyke: dek. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
dike
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCV
Inventory deik · private i
dyke
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCV
Inventory deky · private y
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "dike" when you mean: Alternative spelling of dyke: ditch; embankment; waterway; etc.
- Write "dyke" when you mean: A long, narrow hollow dug from the ground to serve as a boundary marker.
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 (dike, dyke). Here's where to go from here.
- "dyke" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #17,827 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: dicks · Dix. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "dike, dyke" 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.