English homophones
thyme/time
"time" (#60 written frequency) beats "thyme" (#26,628) in this 2-word /taɪm/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /taɪm/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "time" leads at #60, with "thyme" trailing at #26,628.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- No shared spelling stem: "thyme" is 5 letters, "time" is 4; only the sound ties them.
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across thyme, time: emt. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
thyme
5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CCVCV
Inventory ehmty · private hy
time
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCV
Inventory eimt · private i
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "thyme" when you mean: Any plant of the labiate genus Thymus, such as garden thyme (Thymus vulgaris), a warm, pungent aromatic, that is much used to give a reli…
- Write "time" when you mean: The inevitable progression into the future with the passing of present and past events.
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
noun · /taɪm/ · #26,628 frequency
Any plant of the labiate genus Thymus, such as garden thyme (Thymus vulgaris), a warm, pungent aromatic, that is much used to give a relish to seasoning and soups.
noun · /taɪm/ · #60 frequency
The inevitable progression into the future with the passing of present and past events.
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (thyme, time). Here's where to go from here.
- "time" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #60 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: try · tri. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "thyme, time" 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.