English homophones
eek/eke
"eek" is an intj; "eke" 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: "eek" arrives as an intj, while "eke" is a noun. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- No shared spelling stem: "eek" is 3 letters, "eke" is 3; only the sound ties them.
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across eek, eke: ek. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
eek
3 letters · 2 vowels · shape VVC
Inventory ek · no private letters vs siblings
eke
3 letters · 2 vowels · shape VCV
Inventory ek · no private letters vs siblings
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "eek" when you mean: Representing a scream or shriek (especially in comic strips and books).
- Write "eke" when you mean: An addition.
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (eek, eke). Here's where to go from here.
- "eek" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #42,622 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: Emmanuel · Immanuel. 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.