English homophones
tacks/tax
"tax" (#758 written frequency) beats "tacks" (#43,952) in this 2-word /tæks/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /tæks/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "tax" leads at #758, with "tacks" trailing at #43,952.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "ta" then splits - "tacks" (5 letters) vs "tax" (3).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across tacks, tax: at. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
tacks
5 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVCCC
Inventory ackst · private cks
tax
3 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVC
Inventory atx · private x
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "tacks" when you mean: plural of tack
- Write "tax" when you mean: Money or goods collected by a government (or an entity to whom the government has delegated this power, e.g. in tax farming) to fund itse…
Known mistypes of these spellings
Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.
- tacks ← atcks · taccks · tackks · tackss · tacsk · takcs
Each spelling
noun · /tæks/ · #758 frequency
Money or goods collected by a government (or an entity to whom the government has delegated this power, e.g. in tax farming) to fund itself and its services, for example by levying a charge on income, purchases (sales), property or harvest, other than that money which is collected by the government in exchange for specific goods (e.g. the purchase of surplus vehicles).
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (tacks, tax). Here's where to go from here.
- "tax" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #758 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: tied · tide. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "tacks, tax" 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.