English homophones
ren/wren
"ren" (#15,896 written frequency) beats "wren" (#25,979) in this 2-word /ɹɛn/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /ɹɛn/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "ren" leads at #15,896, with "wren" trailing at #25,979.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- No shared spelling stem: "ren" is 3 letters, "wren" is 4; only the sound ties them.
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across ren, wren: enr. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
ren
3 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVC
Inventory enr · no private letters vs siblings
wren
4 letters · 1 vowels · shape CCVC
Inventory enrw · private w
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "ren" when you mean: A kidney.
- Write "wren" when you mean: Troglodytes troglodytes (Eurasian wren, type species and sole Old World species of the family Troglodytidae).
Known mistypes of these spellings
Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.
- wren ← rwen · wern · wrenn · wrne · wrren · wwren
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (ren, wren). Here's where to go from here.
- "ren" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #15,896 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: racket · racquet. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "ren, wren" 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.