English homophones
sulfate/sulphate
"sulfate" (#22,830 written frequency) beats "sulphate" (#47,942) in this 2-word /ˈsʌlfeɪt/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /ˈsʌlfeɪt/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "sulfate" leads at #22,830, with "sulphate" trailing at #47,942.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "sul" then splits - "sulfate" (7 letters) vs "sulphate" (8).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across sulfate, sulphate: aelstu. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
sulfate
7 letters · 3 vowels · shape CVCCVCV
Inventory aeflstu · private f
sulphate
8 letters · 3 vowels · shape CVCCCVCV
Inventory aehlpstu · private hp
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "sulfate" when you mean: Any salt or ester of sulfuric acid.
- Write "sulphate" when you mean: Alternative spelling of sulfate.
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 (sulfate, sulphate). Here's where to go from here.
- "sulfate" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #22,830 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: sown · sone. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "sulfate, sulphate" 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.