English homophones
levee/levy
"levee" is a noun; "levy" is a verb - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Grammar picks the spelling
Same sound, different grammar: "levee" arrives as a noun, while "levy" is a verb. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "lev" then splits - "levee" (5 letters) vs "levy" (4).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across levee, levy: elv. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
levee
5 letters · 3 vowels · shape CVCVV
Inventory elv · no private letters vs siblings
levy
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCV
Inventory elvy · private y
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "levee" when you mean: An elevated ridge of deposited sediment on the banks of a river, formed by the river's overflow at times of high discharge.
- Write "levy" when you mean: To impose (a tax or fine) to collect monies due, or to confiscate property.
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 (levee, levy). Here's where to go from here.
- "levy" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #8,954 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: lamb · lam. 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.