English homophones
gaol/jail
"jail" (#2,392 written frequency) beats "gaol" (#35,310) in this 2-word /d͡ʒeɪl/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /d͡ʒeɪl/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "jail" leads at #2,392, with "gaol" trailing at #35,310.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- No shared spelling stem: "gaol" is 4 letters, "jail" is 4; only the sound ties them.
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across gaol, jail: al. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
gaol
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVVC
Inventory aglo · private go
jail
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVVC
Inventory aijl · private ij
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "gaol" when you mean: Dated spelling of jail.
- Write "jail" when you mean: A place or institution for the confinement of persons held against their will in lawful custody or detention, especially (in US usage) a …
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 · /d͡ʒeɪl/ · #2,392 frequency
A place or institution for the confinement of persons held against their will in lawful custody or detention, especially (in US usage) a place where people are held for minor offenses or with reference to some future judicial proceeding.
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (gaol, jail). Here's where to go from here.
- "jail" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #2,392 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: geyser · Giza. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "gaol, jail" 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.