English homophones

Macleod/McLeod

"Macleod" (#22,146 written frequency) beats "McLeod" (#23,900) in this 2-word /məˈklaʊd/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.

Data vintage

Frequency splits the cluster

These 2 spellings keep the same /məˈklaʊd/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "Macleod" leads at #22,146, with "McLeod" trailing at #23,900.

Spelling pairs in this cluster

  • No shared spelling stem: "Macleod" is 7 letters, "McLeod" is 6; only the sound ties them.

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

Shared letters across Macleod, McLeod: cdelmo. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

  • Macleod

    7 letters · 3 vowels · shape CVCCVVC

    Inventory acdelmo · private a

  • McLeod

    6 letters · 2 vowels · shape CCCVVC

    Inventory cdelmo · no private letters vs siblings

Pick the spelling from the meaning

  • Write "Macleod" when you mean: A surname from Irish, A surname from Scottish Gaelic, A surname from Cree
  • Write "McLeod" when you mean: A Scottish surname from Scottish Gaelic, the anglicised form of the Gaelic Mac Leòid

Known mistypes of these spellings

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

  • Macleodamcleod · maccleod · macelod · macledo · macleodd · maclleod
  • McLeodcmleod · mccleod · mcelod · mcledo · mcleodd · mclleod

Each spelling

Macleod

name · /məˈklaʊd/ · #22,146 frequency

A surname from Irish, A surname from Scottish Gaelic, A surname from Cree

McLeod

name · /məˈklaʊd/ · #23,900 frequency

A Scottish surname from Scottish Gaelic, the anglicised form of the Gaelic Mac Leòid

Nearby English homophone groups

What to do next

You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (Macleod, McLeod). Here's where to go from here.

  • "Macleod" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #22,146 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: mod · marred. Nearby cluster
  • Each spelling in "Macleod, McLeod" 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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list