English homophones

guise/guys

"guys" (#373 written frequency) beats "guise" (#15,625) in this 2-word /ˈɡaɪz/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.

Data vintage

Frequency splits the cluster

These 2 spellings keep the same /ˈɡaɪz/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "guys" leads at #373, with "guise" trailing at #15,625.

Spelling pairs in this cluster

  • Shared stem "gu" then splits - "guise" (5 letters) vs "guys" (4).

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

Shared letters across guise, guys: gsu. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

  • guise

    5 letters · 3 vowels · shape CVVCV

    Inventory egisu · private ei

  • guys

    4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVVC

    Inventory gsuy · private y

Pick the spelling from the meaning

  • Write "guise" when you mean: A customary way of speaking or acting; a fashion, a manner, a practice (often used formerly in such phrases as "at his own guise"; that i…
  • Write "guys" when you mean: plural of guy

Known mistypes of these spellings

Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.

  • guisegguise · giuse · guies · guisse · gusie · ugise
  • guysgguys · gusy · guyss · guyys · gyus · ugys

Each spelling

guise

noun · /ˈɡaɪz/ · #15,625 frequency

A customary way of speaking or acting; a fashion, a manner, a practice (often used formerly in such phrases as "at his own guise"; that is, in his own fashion, to suit himself.)

guys

noun · /ɡaɪz/ · #373 frequency

plural of guy

Nearby English homophone groups

What to do next

You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (guise, guys). Here's where to go from here.

  • "guys" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #373 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: gays · gaze. Nearby cluster
  • Each spelling in "guise, guys" 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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list