meekvsmookWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#19,136
“meek” frequency rank
#48,363
“mook” frequency rank
67499
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature meek mook
Definition Humble, non-boastful, modest, meager, or self-effacing. A disagreeable or incompetent person.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set meek and mook apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
meek
4 ch
mook

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: meek is /miːk/ while mook is /muːk/. 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 67499, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

meek is recorded at frequency rank #19,136, classified as anadj, pronounced /miːk/. mook is at rank #48,363, tagged as anoun, pronounced /muːk/.

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 67499, this pair ranks #63,063 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of meek vs mook

Shared letters: km. Private to "meek": e. Private to "mook": o.

"meek" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "mook" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • meekemek · meekk · meke · mmeek
  • mookmmook · mok · moko · mookk · omok

Frequency comparison

meek#19,136
mook#48,363

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "meek" and "mook" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "meek" is an adjective and "mook" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "meek" or "mook"?
"meek" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,136 in our English list, against #48,363 for "mook". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering meek vs mook

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “meek”; for a noun, it's “mook”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “meek” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list