English homophones
prayed/preyed
"prayed" (#11,761 written frequency) beats "preyed" (#41,823) in this 2-word /pɹeɪd/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /pɹeɪd/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "prayed" leads at #11,761, with "preyed" trailing at #41,823.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "pr" then splits - "prayed" (6 letters) vs "preyed" (6).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across prayed, preyed: depry. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
prayed
6 letters · 3 vowels · shape CCVVVC
Inventory adepry · private a
preyed
6 letters · 3 vowels · shape CCVVVC
Inventory depry · no private letters vs siblings
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "prayed" when you mean: simple past and past participle of pray
- Write "preyed" when you mean: simple past and past participle of prey
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 (prayed, preyed). Here's where to go from here.
- "prayed" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #11,761 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: pains · panes. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "prayed, preyed" 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.