English homophones
licence/license
"license" (#2,902 written frequency) beats "licence" (#7,469) in this 2-word /ˈlaɪ.səns/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /ˈlaɪ.səns/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "license" leads at #2,902, with "licence" trailing at #7,469.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "licen" then splits - "licence" (7 letters) vs "license" (7).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across licence, license: ceiln. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
licence
7 letters · 3 vowels · shape CVCVCCV
Inventory ceiln · no private letters vs siblings
license
7 letters · 3 vowels · shape CVCVCCV
Inventory ceilns · private s
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "licence" when you mean: UK, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand, Malaysia, and Singapore standard spelling of license.
- Write "license" when you mean: A legal document giving official permission to do something; a permit.
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 (licence, license). Here's where to go from here.
- "license" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #2,902 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: lai · lye. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "licence, license" 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.