checkvschucksConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#487
“check” frequency rank
#45,274
“chucks” frequency rank
45761
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature check chucks
Definition An inspection or examination. plural of chuck

Where the eye mixes check and chucks

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

5 ch
check
6 ch
chucks

Look-alike desk: check vs chucks

A purely visual mix-up. check (/t͡ʃɛk/) and chucks (/t͡ʃʌks/) 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 45761, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

check is recorded at frequency rank #487, classified as anoun, pronounced /t͡ʃɛk/. chucks is at rank #45,274, tagged as anoun, pronounced /t͡ʃʌks/.

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 45761, this pair ranks #218,192 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of check vs chucks

Shared letters: chk. Private to "check": e. Private to "chucks": su.

"check" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "chucks" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • checkccheck · cehck · chcek · checck · checkk · chekc · chheck · hceck
  • chuckscchucks · chcuks · chhucks · chuccks · chuckks · chuckss · chucsk · chukcs

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "check" and "chucks" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/t͡ʃɛk/ versus /t͡ʃʌks/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "check" vs "chucks" - which ranks higher?
"check" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #487 in our English list, against #45,274 for "chucks". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "check" and "chucks" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "check" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chucks" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #218,192 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "check" and "chucks" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chucks vs chums". 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 #218,192 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