Letter homophones are simply single letters that sound like full words when spoken aloud. They’re often used in wordplay, texting, and puzzles.

Basic idea

A letter homophone is a letter (or short letter string) whose name is pronounced the same as a word or phrase with a different spelling and meaning.

For example, the letter “R” sounds like the word “are,” and the letter “B” sounds like the word “bee.”

Common single-letter homophones

Some very common English letter homophones include:

• A → “a” (the article)
• B → “bee”
• C → “see”
• I → “I” (the pronoun)
• O → “oh”
• R → “are”
• U → “you”
• Y → “why”

Use in games and texting

These homophones are used in:

• Word games and riddles, where clues like “sounds like ‘are’” point to the letter R.

• Informal writing and texting, such as “I miss U” (for “I miss you”) or “Y R U late?” (for “Why are you late?”).