English homophones

says/sez

"says" (#310 written frequency) beats "sez" (#49,041) in this 2-word /sɛz/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.

Data vintage 2026-09-03

Frequency splits the cluster

These 2 spellings keep the same /sɛz/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "says" leads at #310, with "sez" trailing at #49,041.

No shared spelling stem: "says" is 4 letters, "sez" is 3; only the sound ties them.

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

Write "says" when you mean: third-person singular simple present indicative of say
Write "sez" when you mean: Eye dialect spelling of says.

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

verb · /sɛz/ · #310 frequency

third-person singular simple present indicative of say

verb · /sɛz/ · #49,041 frequency

Eye dialect spelling of says.

What to do next

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

"says" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #310 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: stairs · stares. Nearby cluster
Each spelling in "says, sez" 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.