fleckvsflockWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“fleck” and “flock” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#48,748
“fleck” frequency rank
#11,384
“flock” frequency rank
60132
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fleck flock
Definition A flake. A number of birds together in a group, such as those gathered together for the purpose of migration.

Where the eye mixes fleck and flock

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
fleck
5 ch
flock

Look-alike desk: fleck vs flock

A purely visual mix-up. fleck (/flɛk/) and flock (/flɒk/) 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 - e in “fleck” becomes o in “flock”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60132, 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/. flock is at rank #11,384, tagged as anoun, pronounced /flɒk/.

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 60132, this pair ranks #101,999 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fleck vs flock

Shared letters: cfkl. Private to "fleck": e. Private to "flock": o.

"fleck" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "flock" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fleckfelck · ffleck · flcek · flecck · fleckk · flekc · flleck · lfeck
  • flockfflock · flcok · fllock · flocck · flockk · flokc · folck · lfock

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fleck" for "flock" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/flɛk/ versus /flɒk/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "fleck" or "flock"?
"flock" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,384 in our English list, against #48,748 for "fleck". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fleck" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "flock" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #101,999 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fleck" and "flock" 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 #101,999 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list