Which to use
“licked” is an adjective and “licks” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,692
- “licked” frequency rank
- #25,454
- “licks” frequency rank
- 46146
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | licked | licks |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having been the target of a lick; touched by a tongue. | plural of lick |
Where the eye mixes licked and licks
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. licked runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against licks's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses licked with licks
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: licked is /lɪkt/ while licks is /lɪks/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46146, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
licked is recorded at frequency rank #20,692, classified as anadj, pronounced /lɪkt/. licks is at rank #25,454, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɪks/.
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 46146, this pair ranks #214,509 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of licked vs licks
Shared letters: cikl. Private to "licked": de. Private to "licks": s.
"licked" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "licks" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "licked" and "licks" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "licked" or "licks" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "licked" and "licks" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "licked" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "licks" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #214,509 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "licked" and "licks" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "licked vs linker". 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 #214,509 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.