larkvslinkWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#24,221
“lark” frequency rank
#1,108
“link” frequency rank
25329
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lark link
Definition Any of various small, singing passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. A connection between places, people, events, things, or ideas.

Where the eye mixes lark and link

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

4 ch
lark
4 ch
link

Visual trap between lark and link

A purely visual mix-up. lark (/lɑːk/) and link (/lɪŋk/) 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 25329, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lark is recorded at frequency rank #24,221, classified as anoun, pronounced /lɑːk/. link is at rank #1,108, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɪŋk/.

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 25329, this pair ranks #395,130 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lark vs link

Shared letters: kl. Private to "lark": ar. Private to "link": in.

"lark" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "link" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • larkalrk · lakr · larkk · larrk · llark · lrak
  • linkilnk · likn · linkk · linnk · llink · lnik

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lark" for "link" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/lɑːk/ versus /lɪŋk/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "lark" vs "link" - which ranks higher?
"link" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,108 in our English list, against #24,221 for "lark". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "lark" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "link" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #395,130 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lark" and "link" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lark vs lav". 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 #395,130 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