English homophones
donut/doughnut
"donut" (#19,318 written frequency) beats "doughnut" (#23,249) in this 2-word /ˈdəʊnʌt/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /ˈdəʊnʌt/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "donut" leads at #19,318, with "doughnut" trailing at #23,249.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "do" then splits - "donut" (5 letters) vs "doughnut" (8).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across donut, doughnut: dnotu. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
donut
5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCVC
Inventory dnotu · no private letters vs siblings
doughnut
8 letters · 3 vowels · shape CVVCCCVC
Inventory dghnotu · private gh
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "donut" when you mean: Alternative spelling of doughnut.
- Write "doughnut" when you mean: A deep-fried piece of dough or batter, usually mixed with various sweeteners and flavors, often made in a toroidal or ellipsoidal shape f…
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
noun · /ˈdəʊnʌt/ · #23,249 frequency
A deep-fried piece of dough or batter, usually mixed with various sweeteners and flavors, often made in a toroidal or ellipsoidal shape flattened sphere shape filled with jelly/jam, custard, or cream.
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (donut, doughnut). Here's where to go from here.
- "donut" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #19,318 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: dependent · dependant. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "donut, doughnut" 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.