English homophones
web/Webb
"web" is a noun; "Webb" is a name - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Grammar picks the spelling
Same sound, different grammar: "web" arrives as a noun, while "Webb" is a name. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "web" then splits - "web" (3 letters) vs "Webb" (4).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across web, Webb: bew. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
web
3 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVC
Inventory bew · no private letters vs siblings
Webb
4 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVCC
Inventory bew · no private letters vs siblings
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "web" when you mean: The silken structure which a spider builds using silk secreted from the spinnerets at the caudal tip of its abdomen; a spiderweb.
- Write "Webb" when you mean: An English and Scottish surname originating as an occupation for a weaver.
Known mistypes of these spellings
Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.
- Webb ← ewbb · wbeb · wwebb
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (web, Webb). Here's where to go from here.
- "web" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #1,883 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: Wickham · Wycombe. Nearby cluster
- Grammar often disambiguates this cluster, match the meaning to the part of speech before picking a spelling. Pick by meaning
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.