Which to use
“drunks” and “ducks” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #31,526
- “drunks” frequency rank
- #8,277
- “ducks” frequency rank
- 39803
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | drunks | ducks |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of drunk | plural of duck |
Where the eye mixes drunks and ducks
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. drunks runs 6 letters (CCVCCC) against ducks's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses drunks with ducks
A purely visual mix-up. drunks (/dɹʌŋks/) and ducks (/dʌks/) 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 39803, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
drunks is recorded at frequency rank #31,526, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɹʌŋks/. ducks is at rank #8,277, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dʌks/.
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 39803, this pair ranks #273,339 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of drunks vs ducks
Shared letters: dksu. Private to "drunks": nr. Private to "ducks": c.
"drunks" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC · "ducks" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "drunks" and "ducks" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "drunks" or "ducks"?
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 "drunks" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ducks" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #273,339 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "drunks" and "ducks" 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 #273,339 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.