English homophones
plough/plow
"plow" (#22,176 written frequency) beats "plough" (#25,887) in this 2-word /plaʊ/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /plaʊ/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "plow" leads at #22,176, with "plough" trailing at #25,887.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "plo" then splits - "plough" (6 letters) vs "plow" (4).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across plough, plow: lop. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
plough
6 letters · 2 vowels · shape CCVVCC
Inventory ghlopu · private ghu
plow
4 letters · 1 vowels · shape CCVC
Inventory lopw · private w
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "plough" when you mean: A device pulled through the ground in order to break it open into furrows for planting.
- Write "plow" when you mean: Alternative spelling of plough.
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 (plough, plow). Here's where to go from here.
- "plow" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #22,176 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: pedal · peddle. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "plough, plow" 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.