blankvsblendWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#5,662
“blank” frequency rank
#7,653
“blend” frequency rank
13315
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature blank blend
Definition White or pale; without colour. A mixture of two or more things.

Where the eye mixes blank and blend

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
blank
5 ch
blend

Why the eye confuses blank with blend

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: blank is /ˈblæŋk/ while blend is /blɛnd/. 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 13315, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

blank is recorded at frequency rank #5,662, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈblæŋk/. blend is at rank #7,653, tagged as anoun, pronounced /blɛnd/.

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 13315, this pair ranks #476,530 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of blank vs blend

Shared letters: bln. Private to "blank": ak. Private to "blend": de.

"blank" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "blend" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • blankbalnk · bblank · blakn · blankk · blannk · bllank · blnak · lbank
  • blendbblend · belnd · bledn · blendd · blennd · bllend · blned · lbend

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "blank" for "blend" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "blank" is an adjective and "blend" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "blank" or "blend" show up more?
"blank" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,662 in our English list, against #7,653 for "blend". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "blank" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "blend" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #476,530 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "blank" and "blend" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bendy vs blend". 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 #476,530 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list