Which to use
“place” and “plank” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #187
- “place” frequency rank
- #15,884
- “plank” frequency rank
- 16071
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | place | plank |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An area; somewhere within an area. | A long, broad and thick piece of timber, as opposed to a board which is less thick. |
Where the eye mixes place and plank
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between place and plank
A purely visual mix-up. place (/pleɪs/) and plank (/ˈplæŋk/) 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 16071, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
place is recorded at frequency rank #187, classified as anoun, pronounced /pleɪs/. plank is at rank #15,884, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈplæŋk/.
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 16071, this pair ranks #460,105 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of place vs plank
Shared letters: alp. Private to "place": ce. Private to "plank": kn.
"place" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "plank" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "place" and "plank" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "place" vs "plank" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "place" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "plank" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #460,105 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "place" and "plank" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Phan vs plank". 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 #460,105 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.