Drank or drunk?
Both are forms of drink: drank is the simple past of drink, and drunk the past participle of drink. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) drunk is about 4.6 times as common as drank.
What is the difference between drank and drunk?
| drank | drunk | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | adjective, adverb, noun, verb |
| Meaning | Intoxicated as a result of excessive alcohol consumption, usually by drinking alcoholic beverages Elated or emboldened While drunk | |
| Example | He drank a lot last night | Drunk with power, he immediately ordered a management reshuffle |
| Forms | none | drunker, drunkest |
| Pronunciation | /dɹæŋk/ /dɹaŋk/ /dɾaŋk/ | /dɹʌŋk/ |
| In writing | 8.9 times per million words | 41 times per million words |
Sources: drank and drunk in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of drank and drunk
drank
- 1
slangDextromethorphan
- 2
slangA drink, usually alcoholic
drunk
- 1
Intoxicated as a result of excessive alcohol consumption, usually by drinking alcoholic beverages
- 2
While drunk
He was arrested for driving drunk
- 3
One who is intoxicated with alcohol
- 4
derogatoryHabitually or frequently in a state of intoxication
- 5
A habitual drinker, especially one who is frequently intoxicated
- 6
Elated or emboldened
Drunk with power, he immediately ordered a management reshuffle
- 7
A person whose behaviour when drunk tends to be of a specified kind
He's a talkative drunk; three beers in and he's chattering away about everything
- 8
Drenched or saturated with moisture or liquid
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, drank or drunk?
drank appears 8.9 times per million words; drunk 41 times per million words.
drank 8.9 times per million wordsdrunk 41 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search drank vs drunk?
“drank vs drunk” is searched about 2,400 times a month on Google and 130 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“drunk vs drank”, “drank or drunk”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.