English homophones
lac/lack
"lack" (#1,274 written frequency) beats "lac" (#19,379) in this 2-word /læk/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /læk/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "lack" leads at #1,274, with "lac" trailing at #19,379.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "lac" then splits - "lac" (3 letters) vs "lack" (4).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across lac, lack: acl. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
lac
3 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVC
Inventory acl · no private letters vs siblings
lack
4 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVCC
Inventory ackl · private k
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "lac" when you mean: A resinous substance or lacquer produced mainly on the banyan tree by the female of Kerria lacca, a scale insect.
- Write "lack" when you mean: A deficiency or need (of something desirable or necessary); an absence, want, dearth.
Known mistypes of these spellings
Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.
- lack ← alck · lacck · lackk · lakc · lcak · llack
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (lac, lack). Here's where to go from here.
- "lack" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #1,274 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: let's · lets. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "lac, lack" 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.