English homophones
rap/wrap
"rap" is a noun; "wrap" is a verb - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Grammar picks the spelling
Same sound, different grammar: "rap" arrives as a noun, while "wrap" is a verb. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- No shared spelling stem: "rap" is 3 letters, "wrap" is 4; only the sound ties them.
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across rap, wrap: apr. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
rap
3 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVC
Inventory apr · no private letters vs siblings
wrap
4 letters · 1 vowels · shape CCVC
Inventory aprw · private w
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "rap" when you mean: A sharp blow with something hard.
- Write "wrap" when you mean: To enclose (an object) completely in any flexible, thin material such as fabric or paper.
Known mistypes of these spellings
Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.
- wrap ← rwap · wrapp · wrpa · wrrap · wwrap
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (rap, wrap). Here's where to go from here.
- "wrap" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #5,179 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: ria · rhea. 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.