chunkvscuckWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#12,204
“chunk” frequency rank
#43,586
“cuck” frequency rank
55790
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chunk cuck
Definition A part of something that has been separated; a generally squat, thick, irregular piece of something, e.g. wood or stone. A cuckold or cuckquean.

Where the eye mixes chunk and cuck

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
chunk
4 ch
cuck

Look-alike desk: chunk vs cuck

A purely visual mix-up. chunk (/t͡ʃʌŋk/) and cuck (/kʌk/) 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 55790, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chunk is recorded at frequency rank #12,204, classified as anoun, pronounced /t͡ʃʌŋk/. cuck is at rank #43,586, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kʌk/.

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 55790, this pair ranks #130,928 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of chunk vs cuck

Shared letters: cku. Private to "chunk": hn. Private to "cuck": -.

"chunk" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "cuck" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chunkcchunk · chhunk · chnuk · chukn · chunkk · chunnk · cuhnk · hcunk
  • cuckccuck · ccuk · cucck · cuckk · cukc · ucck

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "chunk" and "cuck" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/t͡ʃʌŋk/ versus /kʌk/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "chunk" or "cuck" show up more?
"chunk" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,204 in our English list, against #43,586 for "cuck". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chunk" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cuck" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #130,928 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chunk" and "cuck" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cuck 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 #130,928 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