blinksvsbunksWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“blinks” and “bunks” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#38,310
“blinks” frequency rank
#45,249
“bunks” frequency rank
83559
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature blinks bunks
Definition a herbaceous annual plant of species Montia fontana, in the family Montiaceae, formerly included in the purslane family (Portulacaceae). plural of bunk

Where the eye mixes blinks and bunks

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

6 ch
blinks
5 ch
bunks

Why the eye confuses blinks with bunks

A purely visual mix-up. blinks (/blɪŋks/) and bunks (/bʌŋks/) 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 83559, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

blinks is recorded at frequency rank #38,310, classified as anoun, pronounced /blɪŋks/. bunks is at rank #45,249, tagged as anoun, pronounced /bʌŋks/.

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 83559, this pair ranks #13,567 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of blinks vs bunks

Shared letters: bkns. Private to "blinks": il. Private to "bunks": u.

"blinks" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC  ·  "bunks" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • blinksbblinks · bilnks · blikns · blinkks · blinkss · blinnks · blinsk · bllinks
  • bunksbbunks · bnuks · bukns · bunkks · bunkss · bunnks · bunsk · ubnks

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "blinks" and "bunks" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/blɪŋks/ versus /bʌŋks/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "blinks" vs "bunks" - which ranks higher?
"blinks" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,310 in our English list, against #45,249 for "bunks". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "blinks" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bunks" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,567 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "blinks" and "bunks" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bung vs bunks". 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 #13,567 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