Which to use
“fleck” and “flesh” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,748
- “fleck” frequency rank
- #5,128
- “flesh” frequency rank
- 53876
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fleck | flesh |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A flake. | The soft tissue of the body, especially muscle and fat. |
Where the eye mixes fleck and flesh
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. fleck and flesh follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between fleck and flesh
A purely visual mix-up. fleck (/flɛk/) and flesh (/flɛʃ/) 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 53876, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fleck is recorded at frequency rank #48,748, classified as anoun, pronounced /flɛk/. flesh is at rank #5,128, tagged as anoun, pronounced /flɛʃ/.
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 53876, this pair ranks #145,468 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fleck vs flesh
Shared letters: efl. Private to "fleck": ck. Private to "flesh": hs.
"fleck" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "flesh" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "fleck" and "flesh" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "fleck" or "flesh"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "fleck" and "flesh" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fleck" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "flesh" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #145,468 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fleck" and "flesh" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fleck vs frock". 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 #145,468 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.