Which to use
“bank” and “brink” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #705
- “bank” frequency rank
- #14,709
- “brink” frequency rank
- 15414
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bank | brink |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An institution where one can place and borrow money and take care of financial affairs. | The edge, margin, or border of a steep place, as of a precipice; a bank or edge. |
Where the eye mixes bank and brink
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between bank and brink
A purely visual mix-up. bank (/ˈbæŋk/) and brink (/bɹɪŋk/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15414, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bank is recorded at frequency rank #705, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈbæŋk/. brink is at rank #14,709, tagged as anoun, pronounced /bɹɪŋk/.
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 15414, this pair ranks #464,114 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of bank vs brink
Shared letters: bkn. Private to "bank": a. Private to "brink": ir.
"bank" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "brink" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "bank" and "brink" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "bank" or "brink" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "bank" and "brink" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "bank" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "brink" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #464,114 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bank" and "brink" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "brink vs Bruni". 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 #464,114 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.