English homophones
enquiry/inquiry
"inquiry" (#4,681 written frequency) beats "enquiry" (#16,903) in this 2-word /ɪnˈkwaɪə.ɹi/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /ɪnˈkwaɪə.ɹi/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "inquiry" leads at #4,681, with "enquiry" trailing at #16,903.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- No shared spelling stem: "enquiry" is 7 letters, "inquiry" is 7; only the sound ties them.
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across enquiry, inquiry: inqruy. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
enquiry
7 letters · 4 vowels · shape VCCVVCV
Inventory einqruy · private e
inquiry
7 letters · 4 vowels · shape VCCVVCV
Inventory inqruy · no private letters vs siblings
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "enquiry" when you mean: British form of inquiry.
- Write "inquiry" when you mean: The act of inquiring; a seeking of information by asking questions; interrogation; a question or questioning.
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 (enquiry, inquiry). Here's where to go from here.
- "inquiry" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #4,681 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: m · em. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "enquiry, inquiry" 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.