flackvsfrockWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: flack is a verb, frock is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“flack” is a verb and “frock” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,799
“flack” frequency rank
#33,656
“frock” frequency rank
64455
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature flack frock
Definition To flutter; palpitate. A dress, a piece of clothing, which consists of a skirt and a cover for the upper body.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set flack and frock apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
flack
5 ch
frock

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: flack is /flæk/ while frock is /fɹɒk/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64455, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

flack is recorded at frequency rank #30,799, classified as averb, pronounced /flæk/. frock is at rank #33,656, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fɹɒk/.

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 64455, this pair ranks #77,618 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of flack vs frock

Shared letters: cfk. Private to "flack": al. Private to "frock": or.

"flack" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "frock" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • flackfalck · fflack · flacck · flackk · flakc · flcak · fllack · lfack
  • frockffrock · forck · frcok · frocck · frockk · frokc · frrock · rfock

Frequency comparison

flack#30,799
frock#33,656

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "flack" and "frock" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "flack" is a verb and "frock" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "flack" or "frock"?
"flack" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,799 in our English list, against #33,656 for "frock". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering flack vs frock

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “flack”; for a noun, it's “frock”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “flack” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list