English homophones

waits/weights

"weights" (#8,875 written frequency) beats "waits" (#11,637) in this 2-word /weɪts/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.

Data vintage

Frequency splits the cluster

These 2 spellings keep the same /weɪts/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "weights" leads at #8,875, with "waits" trailing at #11,637.

Spelling pairs in this cluster

  • No shared spelling stem: "waits" is 5 letters, "weights" is 7; only the sound ties them.

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

Shared letters across waits, weights: istw. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

  • waits

    5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVVCC

    Inventory aistw · private a

  • weights

    7 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVVCCCC

    Inventory eghistw · private egh

Pick the spelling from the meaning

  • Write "waits" when you mean: plural of wait
  • Write "weights" when you mean: plural of weight

Known mistypes of these spellings

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

  • waitsawits · waitss · waitts · watis · wiats · wwaits
  • weightsewights · wegihts · weigghts · weighhts · weighst · weightss

Each spelling

waits

noun · /weɪts/ · #11,637 frequency

plural of wait

weights

noun · /weɪts/ · #8,875 frequency

plural of weight

Nearby English homophone groups

What to do next

You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (waits, weights). Here's where to go from here.

  • "weights" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #8,875 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: what · watt. Nearby cluster
  • Each spelling in "waits, weights" 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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list