Which to use
“balk” is a noun and “bulky” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #40,576
- “balk” frequency rank
- #19,545
- “bulky” frequency rank
- 60121
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | balk | bulky |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An uncultivated ridge formed in the open field system, caused by the action of ploughing. | Being large in size, mass, or volume; big, fat or muscular. |
Where the eye mixes balk and bulky
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. balk runs 4 letters (CVCC) against bulky's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses balk with bulky
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: balk is /bɔːk/ while bulky is /ˈbʌlki/. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60121, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
balk is recorded at frequency rank #40,576, classified as anoun, pronounced /bɔːk/. bulky is at rank #19,545, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈbʌlki/.
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 60121, this pair ranks #102,061 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of balk vs bulky
Shared letters: bkl. Private to "balk": a. Private to "bulky": uy.
"balk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "bulky" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "balk" and "bulky" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "balk" or "bulky"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "balk" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bulky" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #102,061 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "balk" and "bulky" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bails vs balk". 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 #102,061 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.