English homophones
Reilly/Riley
"Riley" (#8,343 written frequency) beats "Reilly" (#18,938) in this 2-word /ˈɹaɪli/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /ˈɹaɪli/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "Riley" leads at #8,343, with "Reilly" trailing at #18,938.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- No shared spelling stem: "Reilly" is 6 letters, "Riley" is 5; only the sound ties them.
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across Reilly, Riley: eilry. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
Reilly
6 letters · 3 vowels · shape CVVCCV
Inventory eilry · no private letters vs siblings
Riley
5 letters · 3 vowels · shape CVCVV
Inventory eilry · no private letters vs siblings
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "Reilly" when you mean: A surname from Irish.
- Write "Riley" when you mean: A surname.
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 (Reilly, Riley). Here's where to go from here.
- "Riley" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #8,343 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: wrap · rap. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "Reilly, Riley" 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.