thankvsthinkTell them apart

Which to use

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

#25,346
“thank” frequency rank
#14,430
“think” frequency rank
39776
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature thank think
Definition sich für etwas erkenntlich zeigen Verstandesarbeit leisten, denken

Where the eye mixes thank and think

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
thank
5 ch
think

Visual trap between thank and think

A purely visual mix-up. thank ([θæŋk]) and think ([θɪŋk]) 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 a single letter - a in “thank” becomes i in “think”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39776, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

thank is recorded at frequency rank #25,346, classified as averb, pronounced [θæŋk]. think is at rank #14,430, tagged as averb, pronounced [θɪŋk].

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 39776, this pair ranks #1,527,237 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of thank vs think

Shared letters: hknt. Private to "thank": a. Private to "think": i.

"thank" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "think" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • thankhtank · tahnk · thakn · thankk · thannk · thhank · thnak · tthank
  • thinkhtink · thhink · thikn · thinkk · thinnk · thnik · tihnk · tthink

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "thank" for "think" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([θæŋk] versus [θɪŋk]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "thank" vs "think" - which ranks higher?
"think" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,430 in our German list, against #25,346 for "thank". 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 "thank" and "think" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "thank" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "think" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,527,237 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "thank" and "think" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thank vs tränke". 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 #1,527,237 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