English homophones
gilt/guilt
"guilt" (#5,796 written frequency) beats "gilt" (#25,774) in this 2-word /ɡɪlt/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /ɡɪlt/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "guilt" leads at #5,796, with "gilt" trailing at #25,774.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- No shared spelling stem: "gilt" is 4 letters, "guilt" is 5; only the sound ties them.
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across gilt, guilt: gilt. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
gilt
4 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVCC
Inventory gilt · no private letters vs siblings
guilt
5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVVCC
Inventory giltu · private u
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "gilt" when you mean: Gold or other metal in a thin layer; gilding.
- Write "guilt" when you mean: Responsibility for wrongdoing.
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 (gilt, guilt). Here's where to go from here.
- "guilt" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #5,796 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: gg · Gigi. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "gilt, guilt" 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.