English homophones

reign/rein

"reign" (#6,407 written frequency) beats "rein" (#17,934) in this 2-word /ɹeɪn/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.

Data vintage

Frequency splits the cluster

These 2 spellings keep the same /ɹeɪn/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "reign" leads at #6,407, with "rein" trailing at #17,934.

Spelling pairs in this cluster

  • Shared stem "rei" then splits - "reign" (5 letters) vs "rein" (4).

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

Shared letters across reign, rein: einr. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

  • reign

    5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVVCC

    Inventory eginr · private g

  • rein

    4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVVC

    Inventory einr · no private letters vs siblings

Pick the spelling from the meaning

  • Write "reign" when you mean: The exercise of sovereign power.
  • Write "rein" when you mean: A strap or rope attached to a bridle or bit, used to control a horse, other animal or young child.

Known mistypes of these spellings

Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.

  • reignerign · regin · reiggn · reignn · reing · riegn
  • reinreinn · reni · rien · rrein

Each spelling

reign

noun · /ɹeɪn/ · #6,407 frequency

The exercise of sovereign power.

rein

noun · /ɹeɪn/ · #17,934 frequency

A strap or rope attached to a bridle or bit, used to control a horse, other animal or young child.

Nearby English homophone groups

What to do next

You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (reign, rein). Here's where to go from here.

  • "reign" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #6,407 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: Randall · Randle. Nearby cluster
  • Each spelling in "reign, rein" 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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list