snuckvsstruckWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#20,502
“snuck” frequency rank
#3,530
“struck” frequency rank
24032
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature snuck struck
Definition simple past and past participle of sneak simple past and past participle of strike

Where the eye mixes snuck and struck

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
snuck
6 ch
struck

Look-alike desk: snuck vs struck

A purely visual mix-up. snuck (/snʌk/) and struck (/stɹʌk/) 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 24032, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

snuck is recorded at frequency rank #20,502, classified as averb, pronounced /snʌk/. struck is at rank #3,530, tagged as averb, pronounced /stɹʌk/.

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 24032, this pair ranks #404,962 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of snuck vs struck

Shared letters: cksu. Private to "snuck": n. Private to "struck": rt.

"snuck" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "struck" · 6 letters · shape CCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • snucknsuck · sncuk · snnuck · snucck · snuckk · snukc · ssnuck · sunck
  • strucksrtuck · sstruck · strcuk · strruck · strucck · struckk · strukc · sttruck

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "snuck" and "struck" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/snʌk/ versus /stɹʌk/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "snuck" or "struck"?
"struck" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,530 in our English list, against #20,502 for "snuck". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "snuck" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "struck" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #404,962 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "snuck" and "struck" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "smock vs snuck". 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 #404,962 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