BankvsbookWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“Bank” and “book” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,050
“Bank” frequency rank
#5,462
“book” frequency rank
6512
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Bank book
Definition Sitz- oder Ablagegelegenheit für mehrere Personen oder Dinge nebeneinander fest gebundene Papierseiten, das Buch

Where the eye mixes Bank and book

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Bank
4 ch
book

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. Bank ([baŋk]) and book ([bʊk]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6512, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Bank is recorded at frequency rank #1,050, classified as anoun, pronounced [baŋk]. book is at rank #5,462, tagged as anoun, pronounced [bʊk].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 6512, this pair ranks #1,991,384 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Bank vs book

Shared letters: bk. Private to "Bank": an. Private to "book": o.

"Bank" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "book" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Bankabnk · bakn · bankk · bannk · bbank · bnak
  • bookbbook · bok · boko · bookk · obok

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Bank" and "book" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([baŋk] versus [bʊk]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Bank" or "book"?
"Bank" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,050 in our German list, against #5,462 for "book". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "Bank" and "book". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Bank" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "book" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,991,384 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Bank" and "book" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "book vs boos". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

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