English homophones
peak/peek/pique
"peak" is a noun; "peek" is a verb - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #30 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Grammar picks the spelling
Same sound, different grammar: "peak" arrives as a noun, while "peek" is a verb. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "pe" then splits - "peak" (4 letters) vs "peek" (4).
- No shared spelling stem: "peak" is 4 letters, "pique" is 5; only the sound ties them.
- No shared spelling stem: "peek" is 4 letters, "pique" is 5; only the sound ties them.
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across peak, peek, pique: ep. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
peak
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVVC
Inventory aekp · private ak
peek
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVVC
Inventory ekp · private k
pique
5 letters · 3 vowels · shape CVCVV
Inventory eipqu · private iqu
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "peak" when you mean: A point; the sharp end or top of anything that terminates in a point; as, the peak, or front, of a cap.
- Write "peek" when you mean: To look slyly, or with the eyes half closed, or through a crevice; to peep.
- Write "pique" when you mean: To wound the pride of (someone); to excite to anger; to irritate, to offend.
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
noun · /piːk/ · #2,847 frequency
A point; the sharp end or top of anything that terminates in a point; as, the peak, or front, of a cap.
verb · /piːk/ · #11,262 frequency
To look slyly, or with the eyes half closed, or through a crevice; to peep.
verb · /piːk/ · #31,706 frequency
To wound the pride of (someone); to excite to anger; to irritate, to offend.
Nearby English homophone groups
- peaked · piqued · peeked3-spelling cluster
- picks · pics · pix3-spelling cluster
- pain · Payne · pane3-spelling cluster
- p · pee · pea3-spelling cluster
- Paul · poll · pall3-spelling cluster
- Peking · peaking · peeking3-spelling cluster
- prior · Pryor · Praia3-spelling cluster
- pair · pear · pare3-spelling cluster
What to do next
You've reviewed the 3-spelling cluster (peak, peek, pique). Here's where to go from here.
- "peak" is the most frequent headword in this 3-spelling cluster (rank #2,847 in English). Full entry
- Among English homophone groups, a cluster of 3 spellings ranks #30 by size (1,007 groups in this vintage). Corpus statistics
- Explore a nearby 3-spelling cluster: peaked · piqued · peeked. 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.