Which to use
“brook” is a verb and “brooks” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,503
- “brook” frequency rank
- #6,660
- “brooks” frequency rank
- 17163
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | brook | brooks |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To bear; endure; support; put up with; tolerate. | plural of brook |
Where the eye mixes brook and brooks
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: brook vs brooks
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: brook is /bɹʊk/ while brooks is /bɹʊks/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “brook” sits inside “brooks”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17163, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
brook is recorded at frequency rank #10,503, classified as averb, pronounced /bɹʊk/. brooks is at rank #6,660, tagged as anoun, pronounced /bɹʊks/.
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 17163, this pair ranks #453,226 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of brook vs brooks
Shared letters: bkor. Private to "brook": -. Private to "brooks": s.
"brook" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "brooks" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "brook" for "brooks" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "brook" or "brooks" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "brook" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "brooks" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #453,226 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "brook" and "brooks" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bock vs brook". 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 #453,226 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.