English homophones

larva/lava/laver

"lava" (#10,720 written frequency) beats "larva" (#29,341) in this 3-word /ˈlɑː.və/ cluster. Size rank #30 of 1,007 English groups.

Data vintage 2026-09-03

Frequency splits the cluster

These 3 spellings keep the same /ˈlɑː.və/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "lava" leads at #10,720, with "larva" trailing at #29,341.

Spelling pairs in this cluster

Shared stem "la" then splits - "larva" (5 letters) vs "lava" (4).
Shared stem "la" then splits - "larva" (5 letters) vs "laver" (5).
Shared stem "lav" then splits - "lava" (4 letters) vs "laver" (5).

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

Shared letters across larva, lava, laver: alv. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

larva
5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCCV
Inventory alrv · private r
lava
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCV
Inventory alv · no private letters vs siblings
laver
5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCVC
Inventory aelrv · private er

Pick the spelling from the meaning

Write "larva" when you mean: An early stage of growth for some insects and amphibians, in which after hatching from their egg, insects are wingless and resemble a cat…
Write "lava" when you mean: The molten rock ejected by a volcano from a vent such as a crater or fissure; magma that has breached the surface of the earth.
Write "laver" when you mean: A red alga/seaweed, Porphyra umbilicalis (syn. Porphyra laciniata), eaten as a vegetable.

Known mistypes of these spellings

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

larva ← alrva · larav · larrva · larvva · lavra · llarva
lava ← laav · lavva · llava · lvaa
laver ← alver · laevr · laverr · lavre · lavver · llaver

Each spelling

larva

noun · /ˈlɑː.və/ · #29,341 frequency

An early stage of growth for some insects and amphibians, in which after hatching from their egg, insects are wingless and resemble a caterpillar or grub, and amphibians lack limbs and resemble fish.

lava

noun · /ˈlɑːvə/ · #10,720 frequency

The molten rock ejected by a volcano from a vent such as a crater or fissure; magma that has breached the surface of the earth.

laver

noun · /ˈlɑːvə/ · #49,457 frequency

A red alga/seaweed, Porphyra umbilicalis (syn. Porphyra laciniata), eaten as a vegetable.

Nearby English homophone groups

What to do next

You've reviewed the 3-spelling cluster (larva, lava, laver). Here's where to go from here.

"lava" is the most frequent headword in this 3-spelling cluster (rank #10,720 in English). Full entry
Among English homophone groups, a cluster of 3 spellings ranks #30 by size (1,007 groups in this vintage). Corpus statistics
Explore a nearby 3-spelling cluster: Lou · lu · loo. Nearby cluster
Each spelling in "larva, lava, laver" 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.