English homophones
whit/wit
"wit" (#7,637 written frequency) beats "whit" (#24,357) in this 2-word /wɪt/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /wɪt/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "wit" leads at #7,637, with "whit" trailing at #24,357.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- No shared spelling stem: "whit" is 4 letters, "wit" is 3; only the sound ties them.
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across whit, wit: itw. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
whit
4 letters · 1 vowels · shape CCVC
Inventory hitw · private h
wit
3 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVC
Inventory itw · no private letters vs siblings
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "whit" when you mean: The smallest part or particle imaginable; an iota.
- Write "wit" when you mean: Sanity.
Known mistypes of these spellings
Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.
- whit ← hwit · whhit · whitt · whti · wwhit
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (whit, wit). Here's where to go from here.
- "wit" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #7,637 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 "whit, wit" 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.