chockvsclockWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#34,430
“chock” frequency rank
#3,414
“clock” frequency rank
37844
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chock clock
Definition Any object used as a wedge or filler, especially when placed behind a wheel to prevent it from rolling. A chronometer, an instrument that measures time, particularly the time of day.

Where the eye mixes chock and clock

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

5 ch
chock
5 ch
clock

Visual trap between chock and clock

A purely visual mix-up. chock (/tʃɒk/) and clock (/klɒk/) 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 a single letter - h in “chock” becomes l in “clock”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37844, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chock is recorded at frequency rank #34,430, classified as anoun, pronounced /tʃɒk/. clock is at rank #3,414, tagged as anoun, pronounced /klɒk/.

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 37844, this pair ranks #290,981 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chock vs clock

Shared letters: cko. Private to "chock": h. Private to "clock": l.

"chock" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "clock" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chockcchock · chcok · chhock · chocck · chockk · chokc · cohck · hcock
  • clockcclock · clcok · cllock · clocck · clockk · clokc · colck · lcock

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chock" for "clock" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/tʃɒk/ versus /klɒk/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "chock" vs "clock" - which ranks higher?
"clock" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,414 in our English list, against #34,430 for "chock". 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 "chock" and "clock" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chock" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "clock" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #290,981 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chock" and "clock" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chock vs clack". 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 #290,981 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