Which to use
“cling” and “clink” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,130
- “cling” frequency rank
- #45,847
- “clink” frequency rank
- 60977
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cling | clink |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fruit (especially peach) whose flesh adheres strongly to the pit. | The sound of metal on metal, or glass on glass. |
Where the eye mixes cling and clink
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cling and clink follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between cling and clink
A purely visual mix-up. cling (/ˈklɪŋ/) and clink (/klɪŋk/) 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 - g in “cling” becomes k in “clink”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60977, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cling is recorded at frequency rank #15,130, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈklɪŋ/. clink is at rank #45,847, tagged as anoun, pronounced /klɪŋk/.
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 60977, this pair ranks #97,067 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cling vs clink
Shared letters: ciln. Private to "cling": g. Private to "clink": k.
"cling" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "clink" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "cling" and "clink" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "cling" or "clink"?
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 "cling" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clink" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #97,067 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cling" and "clink" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clack vs clink". 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 #97,067 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.