English homophones

lay/Leh/lei/ley

"lay" is a verb; "Leh" is a name - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #5 of 1,007 English groups.

Data vintage 2026-09-03

Grammar picks the spelling

Same sound, different grammar: "lay" arrives as a verb, while "Leh" is a name. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.

Spelling pairs in this cluster

No shared spelling stem: "lay" is 3 letters, "Leh" is 3; only the sound ties them.
No shared spelling stem: "lay" is 3 letters, "lei" is 3; only the sound ties them.
No shared spelling stem: "lay" is 3 letters, "ley" is 3; only the sound ties them.
Single-letter fork: "Leh" keeps h, "lei" writes i at letter 3.
Single-letter fork: "Leh" keeps h, "ley" writes y at letter 3.
Single-letter fork: "lei" keeps i, "ley" writes y at letter 3.

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

Shared letters across lay, Leh, lei, ley: l. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

lay
3 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVV
Inventory aly · private ay
Leh
3 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVC
Inventory ehl · private eh
lei
3 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVV
Inventory eil · private ei
ley
3 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVV
Inventory ely · private ey

Pick the spelling from the meaning

Write "lay" when you mean: To place down in a position of rest, or in a horizontal position.
Write "Leh" when you mean: A city, the co-capital of Ladakh, India.
Write "lei" when you mean: A garland of flowers in Hawaii.
Write "ley" when you mean: Arable land used temporarily for hay or grazing.

Each spelling

lay

verb · /leɪ/ · #2,302 frequency

To place down in a position of rest, or in a horizontal position.

Leh

name · /leɪ/ · #47,155 frequency

A city, the co-capital of Ladakh, India.

lei

noun · /leɪ/ · #23,328 frequency

A garland of flowers in Hawaii.

ley

noun · /leɪ/ · #29,720 frequency

Arable land used temporarily for hay or grazing.

Nearby English homophone groups

What to do next

You've reviewed the 4-spelling cluster (lay, Leh, lei, ley). Here's where to go from here.

"lay" is the most frequent headword in this 4-spelling cluster (rank #2,302 in English). Full entry
Among English homophone groups, a cluster of 4 spellings ranks #5 by size (1,007 groups in this vintage). Corpus statistics
Explore a nearby 4-spelling cluster: Lynn · lin · lyn · linn. 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.