English homophones
grisly/grizzly
"grizzly" (#20,128 written frequency) beats "grisly" (#39,834) in this 2-word /ˈɡɹɪzli/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /ˈɡɹɪzli/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "grizzly" leads at #20,128, with "grisly" trailing at #39,834.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "gri" then splits - "grisly" (6 letters) vs "grizzly" (7).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across grisly, grizzly: gilry. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
grisly
6 letters · 2 vowels · shape CCVCCV
Inventory gilrsy · private s
grizzly
7 letters · 2 vowels · shape CCVCCCV
Inventory gilryz · private z
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "grisly" when you mean: Horrifyingly repellent; gruesome, terrifying.
- Write "grizzly" when you mean: Grey-haired, greyish.
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 (grisly, grizzly). Here's where to go from here.
- "grizzly" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #20,128 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: gene · jean. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "grisly, grizzly" 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.