grogvsgroutWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#44,236
“grog” frequency rank
#35,742
“grout” frequency rank
79978
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature grog grout
Definition An alcoholic beverage made with rum and water, especially that once issued to sailors of the Royal Navy. A thin mortar used to fill the gaps between tiles and cavities in masonry.

Where the eye mixes grog and grout

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. grog runs 4 letters (CCVC) against grout's 5 (CCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
grog
5 ch
grout

Look-alike desk: grog vs grout

A purely visual mix-up. grog (/ɡɹɒɡ/) and grout (/ɡɹaʊt/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79978, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

grog is recorded at frequency rank #44,236, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡɹɒɡ/. grout is at rank #35,742, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɡɹaʊt/.

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 79978, this pair ranks #20,850 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of grog vs grout

Shared letters: gor. Private to "grog": -. Private to "grout": tu.

"grog" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "grout" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • grog ← ggrog · gorg · grgo · grogg · grrog · rgog
  • grout ← ggrout · gorut · grotu · groutt · grrout · gruot · rgout

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "grog" and "grout" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ɡɹɒɡ/ versus /ɡɹaʊt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "grog" or "grout"?
"grout" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,742 in our English list, against #44,236 for "grog". 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 "grog" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "grout" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #20,850 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "grog" and "grout" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grog vs gronk". 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 #20,850 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