Which to use
“cask” and “clack” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #29,208
- “cask” frequency rank
- #46,381
- “clack” frequency rank
- 75589
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cask | clack |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A large barrel for the storage of liquid, especially of alcoholic drinks. (See a diagram of cask sizes.) | An abrupt, sharp sound, especially one made by two hard objects colliding repetitively; a sound midway between a click and a clunk. |
Where the eye mixes cask and clack
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cask runs 4 letters (CVCC) against clack's 5 (CCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: cask vs clack
A purely visual mix-up. cask (/kɑːsk/) and clack (/klæk/) 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 75589, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cask is recorded at frequency rank #29,208, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɑːsk/. clack is at rank #46,381, tagged as anoun, pronounced /klæk/.
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 75589, this pair ranks #32,660 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cask vs clack
Shared letters: ack. Private to "cask": s. Private to "clack": l.
"cask" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "clack" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cask" for "clack" ever safe?
Frequency check: "cask" vs "clack" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "cask" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clack" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #32,660 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cask" and "clack" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clack vs clink". 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 #32,660 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.