English homophones
tic/tick
"tick" (#9,678 written frequency) beats "tic" (#22,244) in this 2-word /tɪk/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /tɪk/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "tick" leads at #9,678, with "tic" trailing at #22,244.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "tic" then splits - "tic" (3 letters) vs "tick" (4).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across tic, tick: cit. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
tic
3 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVC
Inventory cit · no private letters vs siblings
tick
4 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVCC
Inventory cikt · private k
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "tic" when you mean: A sudden, nonrhythmic motor movement or vocalization.
- Write "tick" when you mean: A tiny woodland arachnid of the suborder Ixodida.
Known mistypes of these spellings
Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.
- tick ← itck · tcik · ticck · tickk · tikc · ttick
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (tic, tick). Here's where to go from here.
- "tick" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #9,678 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: Trisha · Tricia. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "tic, tick" 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.