English homophones
mic/mike
"mike" (#1,665 written frequency) beats "mic" (#9,498) in this 2-word /ˈmaɪk/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /ˈmaɪk/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "mike" leads at #1,665, with "mic" trailing at #9,498.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "mi" then splits - "mic" (3 letters) vs "mike" (4).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across mic, mike: im. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
mic
3 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVC
Inventory cim · private c
mike
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCV
Inventory eikm · private ek
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "mic" when you mean: Alternative form of mike (“microphone”).
- Write "mike" when you mean: A microphone.
Known mistypes of these spellings
Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.
- mike ← imke · miek · mikke · mkie · mmike
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (mic, mike). Here's where to go from here.
- "mike" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #1,665 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: manner · manna. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "mic, mike" 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.