frankvsfrockWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#1,828
“frank” frequency rank
#33,656
“frock” frequency rank
35484
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature frank frock
Definition Honest, especially in a manner that seems slightly blunt; candid; not reserved or disguised. A dress, a piece of clothing, which consists of a skirt and a cover for the upper body.

Where the eye mixes frank and frock

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. frank and frock follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
frank
5 ch
frock

Visual trap between frank and frock

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: frank is /ˈfɹæŋk/ 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35484, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

frank is recorded at frequency rank #1,828, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈfɹæŋk/. 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 35484, this pair ranks #311,525 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of frank vs frock

Shared letters: fkr. Private to "frank": an. Private to "frock": co.

"frank" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "frock" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • frank ← farnk · ffrank · frakn · frankk · frannk · frnak · frrank · rfank
  • frock ← ffrock · forck · frcok · frocck · frockk · frokc · frrock · rfock

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "frank" for "frock" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "frank" is an adjective and "frock" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "frank" or "frock"?
"frank" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,828 in our English list, against #33,656 for "frock". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "frank" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "frock" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #311,525 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "frank" and "frock" 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 #311,525 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