Shrank or shrunk?
Both are forms of shrink: shrank is the simple past of shrink, and shrunk the simple past and past participle of shrink. On its own, shrank is a noun meaning “A large highly decorative German/Dutch-style piece of furniture…”, and shrunk an adjective meaning “shrunken”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) shrunk is about 1.9 times as common as shrank.
What is the difference between shrank and shrunk?
| shrank | shrunk | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | adjective, verb |
| Meaning | USA large highly decorative German/Dutch-style piece of furniture, which combines aspects of a clothing wardrobe, curio, and cabinet | shrunken |
| Example | none recorded | none recorded |
| Forms | shranks | none |
| Pronunciation | /ʃɹæŋk/ [ʃɹʷæŋk] /ʃɹaŋk/ | /ˈʃɹʌŋk/ [ˈʃɹʷʌŋk] /ˈʃɹʊŋk/ |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words | 1.5 times per million words |
Sources: shrank and shrunk in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of shrank and shrunk
shrank
- 1
USA large highly decorative German/Dutch-style piece of furniture, which combines aspects of a clothing wardrobe, curio, and cabinet
shrunk
- 1
shrunken
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, shrank or shrunk?
shrank appears about once in every 1 million words; shrunk 1.5 times per million words.
shrank about once in every 1 million wordsshrunk 1.5 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search shrank vs shrunk?
“shrank vs shrunk” is searched about 1,300 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“shrunk vs shrank”, “shrank or shrunk”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.