drankvsdrinksWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#7,679
“drank” frequency rank
#3,424
“drinks” frequency rank
11103
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature drank drinks
Definition Dextromethorphan. plural of drink

Where the eye mixes drank and drinks

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

5 ch
drank
6 ch
drinks

Look-alike desk: drank vs drinks

A purely visual mix-up. drank (/ˈdɹæŋk/) and drinks (/dɹɪŋks/) 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 11103, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

drank is recorded at frequency rank #7,679, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdɹæŋk/. drinks is at rank #3,424, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɹɪŋks/.

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 11103, this pair ranks #488,874 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of drank vs drinks

Shared letters: dknr. Private to "drank": a. Private to "drinks": is.

"drank" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "drinks" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • drankdarnk · ddrank · drakn · drankk · drannk · drnak · drrank · rdank
  • drinksddrinks · dirnks · drikns · drinkks · drinkss · drinnks · drinsk · drniks

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "drank" and "drinks" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈdɹæŋk/ versus /dɹɪŋks/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "drank" vs "drinks" - which ranks higher?
"drinks" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,424 in our English list, against #7,679 for "drank". 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 "drank" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "drinks" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #488,874 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "drank" and "drinks" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Drago vs drank". 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 #488,874 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