English homophones
secs/sex
"sex" (#611 written frequency) beats "secs" (#24,894) in this 2-word /sɛks/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /sɛks/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "sex" leads at #611, with "secs" trailing at #24,894.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "se" then splits - "secs" (4 letters) vs "sex" (3).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across secs, sex: es. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
secs
4 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVCC
Inventory ces · private c
sex
3 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVC
Inventory esx · private x
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "secs" when you mean: plural of sec; seconds
- Write "sex" when you mean: A category into which sexually-reproducing organisms are divided on the basis of their reproductive roles in their species; the system of…
Known mistypes of these spellings
Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.
- secs ← escs · sces · seccs · secss · sesc · ssecs
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (secs, sex). Here's where to go from here.
- "sex" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #611 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: slay · sleigh. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "secs, sex" 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.