flockedvsforkedWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: flocked is a verb, forked is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“flocked” is a verb and “forked” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#32,402
“flocked” frequency rank
#30,428
“forked” frequency rank
62830
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature flocked forked
Definition simple past and past participle of flock That splits into two or more directions, or parts.

Letter map: flocked vs forked

Shared letters muted; letters that set flocked and forked apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

7 ch
flocked
6 ch
forked

Part-of-speech tell for flocked / forked

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: flocked is averb and forkedanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62830, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

flocked is recorded at frequency rank #32,402, classified as averb. forked is at rank #30,428, tagged as anadj, pronounced /fɔː(ɹ)kt/.

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 62830, this pair ranks #86,310 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of flocked vs forked

Shared letters: defko. Private to "flocked": cl. Private to "forked": r.

"flocked" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "forked" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • flockedfflocked · flcoked · fllocked · floccked · flocekd · flockde · flockedd · flockked
  • forkedfforked · fokred · forekd · forkde · forkedd · forkked · forrked · froked

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "flocked" and "forked" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "flocked" is a verb and "forked" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "flocked" or "forked"?
"forked" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,428 in our English list, against #32,402 for "flocked". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "flocked" vs "forked" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "flocked" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "forked" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #86,310 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "flocked" and "forked" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "flaked vs flocked". 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 #86,310 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