peckvspeeksWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#15,877
“peck” frequency rank
#47,252
“peeks” frequency rank
63129
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature peck peeks
Definition To strike or pierce with the beak or bill (of a bird). third-person singular simple present indicative of peek

Where the eye mixes peck and peeks

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
peck
5 ch
peeks

Why the eye confuses peck with peeks

A purely visual mix-up. peck (/pɛk/) and peeks (/piːks/) 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 63129, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

peck is recorded at frequency rank #15,877, classified as averb, pronounced /pɛk/. peeks is at rank #47,252, tagged as averb, pronounced /piːks/.

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 63129, this pair ranks #84,708 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of peck vs peeks

Shared letters: ekp. Private to "peck": c. Private to "peeks": s.

"peck" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "peeks" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • peckepck · pcek · pecck · peckk · pekc · ppeck
  • peeksepeks · peekks · peekss · peesk · pekes · peks · ppeeks

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "peck" for "peeks" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/pɛk/ versus /piːks/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "peck" or "peeks" show up more?
"peck" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,877 in our English list, against #47,252 for "peeks". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "peck" and "peeks" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "peck" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "peeks" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #84,708 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "peck" and "peeks" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pecs vs peeks". 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 #84,708 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