DiskvsdrinkWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Disk is a noun, drink is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Disk” is a noun and “drink” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,997
“Disk” frequency rank
#14,042
“drink” frequency rank
46039
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Disk drink
Definition Speichermedium in Form einer flachen Scheibe Flüssigkeit zu sich nehmen

Where the eye mixes Disk and drink

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

4 ch
Disk
5 ch
drink

Look-alike desk: Disk vs drink

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Disk is [dɪsk] while drink is [dɹɪŋk]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46039, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Disk is recorded at frequency rank #31,997, classified as anoun, pronounced [dɪsk]. drink is at rank #14,042, tagged as averb, pronounced [dɹɪŋk].

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 46039, this pair ranks #1,332,613 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Disk vs drink

Shared letters: dik. Private to "Disk": s. Private to "drink": nr.

"Disk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "drink" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Diskddisk · diks · diskk · dissk · dsik · idsk
  • drinkddrink · dirnk · drikn · drinkk · drinnk · drnik · drrink · rdink

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Disk" and "drink" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Disk" is a noun and "drink" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Disk" vs "drink" - which ranks higher?
"drink" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,042 in our German list, against #31,997 for "Disk". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Disk" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "drink" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,332,613 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Disk" and "drink" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "diet vs Disk". 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 #1,332,613 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