forkvsfunkWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#6,788
“fork” frequency rank
#11,035
“funk” frequency rank
17823
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fork funk
Definition Any of several types of pronged (tined) tools (physical tools), as follows: Foul or unpleasant smell, especially body odor.

Where the eye mixes fork and funk

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
fork
4 ch
funk

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. fork (/fɔːk/) and funk (/fʌŋk/) 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 17823, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fork is recorded at frequency rank #6,788, classified as anoun, pronounced /fɔːk/. funk is at rank #11,035, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fʌŋk/.

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 17823, this pair ranks #448,902 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of fork vs funk

Shared letters: fk. Private to "fork": or. Private to "funk": nu.

"fork" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "funk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • forkffork · fokr · forkk · forrk · frok · ofrk
  • funkffunk · fnuk · fukn · funkk · funnk · ufnk

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fork" and "funk" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/fɔːk/ versus /fʌŋk/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "fork" or "funk"?
"fork" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,788 in our English list, against #11,035 for "funk". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "fork" and "funk". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fork" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "funk" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #448,902 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fork" and "funk" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fenn vs funk". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list