clockvscookTell them apart

Which to use

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

#49,562
“clock” frequency rank
#15,594
“cook” frequency rank
65156
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature clock cook
Definition feststehende Uhr, die im Gegensatz zur Armbanduhr nicht getragen werden kann Koch, Köchin

Where the eye mixes clock and cook

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
clock
4 ch
cook

Look-alike desk: clock vs cook

A purely visual mix-up. clock ([klɒk]) and cook ([kʊk]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65156, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clock is recorded at frequency rank #49,562, classified as anoun, pronounced [klɒk]. cook is at rank #15,594, tagged as anoun, pronounced [kʊk].

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 65156, this pair ranks #616,622 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of clock vs cook

Shared letters: cko. Private to "clock": l. Private to "cook": -.

"clock" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "cook" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • clockcclock · clcok · cllock · clocck · clockk · clokc · colck · lcock
  • cookccook · cok · coko · cookk · ocok

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "clock" and "cook" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([klɒk] versus [kʊk]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "clock" or "cook" show up more?
"cook" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,594 in our German list, against #49,562 for "clock". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "clock" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cook" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #616,622 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "clock" and "cook" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clock vs clou". 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

Confusion rank #616,622 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list