chinkvschockTell them apart

Which to use

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

#46,376
“chink” frequency rank
#34,430
“chock” frequency rank
80806
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chink chock
Definition A narrow opening such as a fissure or crack. Any object used as a wedge or filler, especially when placed behind a wheel to prevent it from rolling.

Where the eye mixes chink and chock

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. chink and chock follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
chink
5 ch
chock

Look-alike desk: chink vs chock

A purely visual mix-up. chink (/t͡ʃɪŋk/) and chock (/tʃɒk/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80806, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chink is recorded at frequency rank #46,376, classified as anoun, pronounced /t͡ʃɪŋk/. chock is at rank #34,430, tagged as anoun, pronounced /tʃɒk/.

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 80806, this pair ranks #19,028 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of chink vs chock

Shared letters: chk. Private to "chink": in. Private to "chock": o.

"chink" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "chock" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chink ← cchink · chhink · chikn · chinkk · chinnk · chnik · cihnk · hcink
  • chock ← cchock · chcok · chhock · chocck · chockk · chokc · cohck · hcock

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "chink" and "chock" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/t͡ʃɪŋk/ versus /tʃɒk/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "chink" vs "chock" - which ranks higher?
"chock" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,430 in our English list, against #46,376 for "chink". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "chink" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chock" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #19,028 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chink" and "chock" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chibi vs chink". 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 #19,028 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