Which to use
“chuck” and “chunk” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,399
- “chuck” frequency rank
- #12,204
- “chunk” frequency rank
- 17603
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | chuck | chunk |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Meat from the shoulder of a cow or other animal. | A part of something that has been separated; a generally squat, thick, irregular piece of something, e.g. wood or stone. |
Where the eye mixes chuck and chunk
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: chuck vs chunk
A purely visual mix-up. chuck (/t͡ʃʌk/) and chunk (/t͡ʃʌŋk/) 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 - c in “chuck” becomes n in “chunk”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17603, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
chuck is recorded at frequency rank #5,399, classified as anoun, pronounced /t͡ʃʌk/. chunk is at rank #12,204, tagged as anoun, pronounced /t͡ʃʌŋk/.
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 17603, this pair ranks #450,335 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of chuck vs chunk
Shared letters: chku. Private to "chuck": -. Private to "chunk": n.
"chuck" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "chunk" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "chuck" for "chunk" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "chuck" or "chunk" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "chuck" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "chunk" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #450,335 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chuck" and "chunk" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chunk vs cuny". 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 #450,335 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.