English homophones
IV/ivy
"IV" is an adjective; "ivy" 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: "IV" arrives as an adjective, while "ivy" is a noun. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "iv" then splits - "IV" (2 letters) vs "ivy" (3).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across IV, ivy: iv. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
IV
2 letters · 1 vowels · shape VC
Inventory iv · no private letters vs siblings
ivy
3 letters · 2 vowels · shape VCV
Inventory ivy · private y
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "IV" when you mean: Abbreviation of intravenous.
- Write "ivy" when you mean: Any of several woody, climbing, or trailing evergreen plants of the genus Hedera.
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (IV, ivy). Here's where to go from here.
- "IV" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #3,762 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: indie · Indy. 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.