Which to use
“drinks” and “drunks” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,424
- “drinks” frequency rank
- #31,526
- “drunks” frequency rank
- 34950
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | drinks | drunks |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of drink | plural of drunk |
Where the eye mixes drinks and drunks
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: drinks vs drunks
A purely visual mix-up. drinks (/dɹɪŋks/) and drunks (/dɹʌŋks/) 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 - i in “drinks” becomes u in “drunks”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34950, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
drinks is recorded at frequency rank #3,424, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɹɪŋks/. drunks is at rank #31,526, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɹʌŋks/.
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 34950, this pair ranks #316,244 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of drinks vs drunks
Shared letters: dknrs. Private to "drinks": i. Private to "drunks": u.
"drinks" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC · "drunks" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "drinks" and "drunks" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "drinks" vs "drunks" - which ranks higher?
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 "drinks" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "drunks" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #316,244 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "drinks" and "drunks" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "drunks vs dunks". 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 #316,244 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.