keckvsKorkWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: keck is a adjective, Kork is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“keck” is an adjective and “Kork” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,143
“keck” frequency rank
#43,297
“Kork” frequency rank
76440
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature keck Kork
Definition auf eine angenehme, ansprechende Art und Weise frech, respektlos oder vorlaut 2,5 bis 20 cm dicke Rinde der Korkeiche (quercus suber), aus lückenlos aneinander schließenden Zellen, die für Flüssigkeiten und Gase schwer durchlässig sind

Where the eye mixes keck and Kork

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. keck and Kork follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
keck
4 ch
Kork

Visual trap between keck and Kork

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: keck is [kɛk] while Kork is [kɔʁk]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76440, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

keck is recorded at frequency rank #33,143, classified as anadj, pronounced [kɛk]. Kork is at rank #43,297, tagged as anoun, pronounced [kɔʁk].

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 76440, this pair ranks #283,886 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of keck vs Kork

Shared letters: k. Private to "keck": ce. Private to "Kork": or.

"keck" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Kork" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • keck ← ekck · kcek · kecck · keckk · kekc · kkeck
  • Kork ← kkork · kokr · korkk · korrk · krok · okrk

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "keck" and "Kork" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "keck" is an adjective and "Kork" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "keck" vs "Kork" - which ranks higher?
"keck" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,143 in our German list, against #43,297 for "Kork". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "keck" and "Kork" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "keck" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Kork" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #283,886 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "keck" and "Kork" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kola vs Kork". 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 #283,886 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