English homophones

rights/rites/writes

"rights" is a noun; "writes" is a verb - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #30 of 1,007 English groups.

Data vintage 2026-09-03

Grammar picks the spelling

Same sound, different grammar: "rights" arrives as a noun, while "writes" is a verb. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.

Spelling pairs in this cluster

Shared stem "ri" then splits - "rights" (6 letters) vs "rites" (5).
No shared spelling stem: "rights" is 6 letters, "writes" is 6; only the sound ties them.
No shared spelling stem: "rites" is 5 letters, "writes" is 6; only the sound ties them.

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

Shared letters across rights, rites, writes: irst. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

rights
6 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVCCCC
Inventory ghirst · private gh
rites
5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCVC
Inventory eirst · private e
writes
6 letters · 2 vowels · shape CCVCVC
Inventory eirstw · private ew

Pick the spelling from the meaning

Write "rights" when you mean: plural of right
Write "rites" when you mean: plural of rite
Write "writes" when you mean: third-person singular simple present indicative of write

Known mistypes of these spellings

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

rights ← irghts · rgihts · rigghts · righhts · righst · rightss
rites ← irtes · riets · ritess · ritse · rittes · rrites
writes ← rwites · wirtes · wriets · writess · writse · writtes

Each spelling

rights

noun · /ɹaɪts/ · #664 frequency

plural of right

rites

noun · /ɹaɪts/ · #16,330 frequency

plural of rite

writes

verb · /ɹaɪts/ · #3,920 frequency

third-person singular simple present indicative of write

Nearby English homophone groups

What to do next

You've reviewed the 3-spelling cluster (rights, rites, writes). Here's where to go from here.

"rights" is the most frequent headword in this 3-spelling cluster (rank #664 in English). Full entry
Among English homophone groups, a cluster of 3 spellings ranks #30 by size (1,007 groups in this vintage). Corpus statistics
Explore a nearby 3-spelling cluster: raise · rays · res. 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.