chucksvschunkWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#45,274
“chucks” frequency rank
#12,204
“chunk” frequency rank
57478
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chucks chunk
Definition plural of chuck 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 chucks and chunk

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

6 ch
chucks
5 ch
chunk

Visual trap between chucks and chunk

A purely visual mix-up. chucks (/t͡ʃʌks/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57478, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chucks is recorded at frequency rank #45,274, classified as anoun, pronounced /t͡ʃʌks/. 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 57478, this pair ranks #119,043 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of chucks vs chunk

Shared letters: chku. Private to "chucks": s. Private to "chunk": n.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chuckscchucks · chcuks · chhucks · chuccks · chuckks · chuckss · chucsk · chukcs
  • chunkcchunk · chhunk · chnuk · chukn · chunkk · chunnk · cuhnk · hcunk

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chucks" for "chunk" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/t͡ʃʌks/ versus /t͡ʃʌŋk/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "chucks" or "chunk"?
"chunk" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,204 in our English list, against #45,274 for "chucks". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chucks" 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 #119,043 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chucks" and "chunk" 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 #119,043 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