English homophones

vail/vale/veil

"veil" (#11,994 written frequency) beats "vale" (#12,710) in this 3-word /veɪl/ cluster. Size rank #30 of 1,007 English groups.

Data vintage 2026-09-03

Frequency splits the cluster

These 3 spellings keep the same /veɪl/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "veil" leads at #11,994, with "vale" trailing at #12,710.

Spelling pairs in this cluster

Shared stem "va" then splits - "vail" (4 letters) vs "vale" (4).
No shared spelling stem: "vail" is 4 letters, "veil" is 4; only the sound ties them.
No shared spelling stem: "vale" is 4 letters, "veil" is 4; only the sound ties them.

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

Shared letters across vail, vale, veil: lv. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

vail
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVVC
Inventory ailv · private ai
vale
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCV
Inventory aelv · private ae
veil
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVVC
Inventory eilv · private ei

Pick the spelling from the meaning

Write "vail" when you mean: Profit; return; proceeds.
Write "vale" when you mean: A valley.
Write "veil" when you mean: Something hung up or spread out to hide or protect the face, or hide an object from view; usually of gauze, crepe, or similar diaphanous …

Known mistypes of these spellings

Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.

vail ← avil · vaill · vali · vvail
vale ← avle · vael · vlae · vvale
veil ← veill · veli · viel · vveil

Each spelling

vail

noun · /veɪl/ · #27,016 frequency

Profit; return; proceeds.

vale

noun · /veɪl/ · #12,710 frequency

A valley.

veil

noun · /veɪl/ · #11,994 frequency

Something hung up or spread out to hide or protect the face, or hide an object from view; usually of gauze, crepe, or similar diaphanous material.

Nearby English homophone groups

What to do next

You've reviewed the 3-spelling cluster (vail, vale, veil). Here's where to go from here.

"veil" is the most frequent headword in this 3-spelling cluster (rank #11,994 in English). Full entry
Among English homophone groups, a cluster of 3 spellings ranks #30 by size (1,007 groups in this vintage). Corpus statistics
Explore a nearby 3-spelling cluster: vein · vain · vane. Nearby cluster
Each spelling in "vail, vale, veil" 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.