English homophones
gage/gauge
"gage" is a verb; "gauge" 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: "gage" arrives as a verb, while "gauge" is a noun. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "ga" then splits - "gage" (4 letters) vs "gauge" (5).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across gage, gauge: aeg. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
gage
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCV
Inventory aeg · no private letters vs siblings
gauge
5 letters · 3 vowels · shape CVVCV
Inventory aegu · private u
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "gage" when you mean: To bind (someone) by pledge or security; to engage.
- Write "gauge" when you mean: A measure; a standard of measure; an instrument to determine dimensions, distance, or capacity; a standard
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 (gage, gauge). Here's where to go from here.
- "gauge" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #6,912 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: Gleason · Gleeson. 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.