Which to use
“Drill” is a noun and “drink” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #41,749
- “Drill” frequency rank
- #14,042
- “drink” frequency rank
- 55791
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Drill | drink |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Vermittlung besonderer Fertigkeiten und Festigung bestimmter Eigenschaften bei Menschen, vor allem Soldaten oder Sportlern, und Tieren, vor allem Hunden oder Pferden, unter der Maßgabe des unbedingten Lernerfolgs | Flüssigkeit zu sich nehmen |
Where the eye mixes Drill and drink
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: Drill vs drink
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Drill is [dʁɪl] while drink is [dɹɪŋk]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55791, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Drill is recorded at frequency rank #41,749, classified as anoun, pronounced [dʁɪl]. 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 55791, this pair ranks #965,623 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Drill vs drink
Shared letters: dir. Private to "Drill": l. Private to "drink": kn.
"Drill" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "drink" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Drill" for "drink" ever safe?
Which is more common, "Drill" or "drink"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "Drill" and "drink" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "Drill" 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 #965,623 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Drill" and "drink" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Drift vs Drill". 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 #965,623 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.