English homophones
petit/petty
"petty" (#6,394 written frequency) beats "petit" (#20,456) in this 2-word /ˈpɛti/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /ˈpɛti/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "petty" leads at #6,394, with "petit" trailing at #20,456.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "pet" then splits - "petit" (5 letters) vs "petty" (5).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across petit, petty: ept. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
petit
5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCVC
Inventory eipt · private i
petty
5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCCV
Inventory epty · private y
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "petit" when you mean: Petite: small, little.
- Write "petty" when you mean: Having little or no importance.
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 (petit, petty). Here's where to go from here.
- "petty" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #6,394 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: pie · pi. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "petit, petty" 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.