English homophones
lama/llama
"lama" (#15,445 written frequency) beats "llama" (#30,868) in this 2-word /ˈlɑː.mə/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /ˈlɑː.mə/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "lama" leads at #15,445, with "llama" trailing at #30,868.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- No shared spelling stem: "lama" is 4 letters, "llama" is 5; only the sound ties them.
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across lama, llama: alm. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
lama
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCV
Inventory alm · no private letters vs siblings
llama
5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CCVCV
Inventory alm · no private letters vs siblings
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "lama" when you mean: A master of Tibetan Buddhism.
- Write "llama" when you mean: A South American mammal of the camel family, Lama glama, used as a domestic beast of burden and a source of wool and meat.
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 (lama, llama). Here's where to go from here.
- "lama" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #15,445 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: Levine · Lavigne. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "lama, llama" 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.