English homophones
sails/sales
"sales" (#1,028 written frequency) beats "sails" (#14,629) in this 2-word /seɪlz/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /seɪlz/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "sales" leads at #1,028, with "sails" trailing at #14,629.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "sa" then splits - "sails" (5 letters) vs "sales" (5).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across sails, sales: als. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
sails
5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVVCC
Inventory ails · private i
sales
5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCVC
Inventory aels · private e
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "sails" when you mean: plural of sail
- Write "sales" when you mean: plural of sale
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 (sails, sales). Here's where to go from here.
- "sales" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #1,028 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: stake · steak. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "sails, sales" 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.