English homophones
plum/plumb
"plum" (#13,984 written frequency) beats "plumb" (#32,124) in this 2-word /plʌm/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /plʌm/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "plum" leads at #13,984, with "plumb" trailing at #32,124.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "plum" then splits - "plum" (4 letters) vs "plumb" (5).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across plum, plumb: lmpu. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
plum
4 letters · 1 vowels · shape CCVC
Inventory lmpu · no private letters vs siblings
plumb
5 letters · 1 vowels · shape CCVCC
Inventory blmpu · private b
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "plum" when you mean: The fruit and its tree.
- Write "plumb" when you mean: A little mass of lead, or the like, attached to a line, and used by builders, etc., to indicate a vertical direction.
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 (plum, plumb). Here's where to go from here.
- "plum" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #13,984 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: per · purr. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "plum, plumb" 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.