Which to use
“drilling” and “drinking” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,915
- “drilling” frequency rank
- #1,993
- “drinking” frequency rank
- 9908
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | drilling | drinking |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The act or process of drilling. | An act or session by which drink is consumed, especially alcoholic beverages. |
Where the eye mixes drilling and drinking
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: drilling vs drinking
A purely visual mix-up. drilling (/ˈdɹɪlɪŋ/) and drinking (/ˈdɹɪŋk.ɪŋ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9908, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
drilling is recorded at frequency rank #7,915, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdɹɪlɪŋ/. drinking is at rank #1,993, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdɹɪŋk.ɪŋ/.
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 9908, this pair ranks #494,976 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of drilling vs drinking
Shared letters: dginr. Private to "drilling": l. Private to "drinking": k.
"drilling" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC · "drinking" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "drilling" for "drinking" ever safe?
Frequency check: "drilling" vs "drinking" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "drilling" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "drinking" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #494,976 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "drilling" and "drinking" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dribbling vs drilling". 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 #494,976 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.