Which to use
“thank” and “tonk” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #317
- “thank” frequency rank
- #47,387
- “tonk” frequency rank
- 47704
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thank | tonk |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | singular of thanks (“an expression of appreciation or gratitude; grateful feelings or thoughts; favour, goodwill, graciousness”) | An illegal immigrant of any country. |
Letter map: thank vs tonk
Shared letters muted; letters that set thank and tonk apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. thank runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against tonk's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Pair insight - thank / tonk
thank and tonk are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47704, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
thank is recorded at frequency rank #317, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈθæŋk/. tonk is at rank #47,387, tagged as anoun.
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 47704, this pair ranks #199,958 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of thank vs tonk
Shared letters: knt. Private to "thank": ah. Private to "tonk": o.
"thank" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "tonk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "thank" for "tonk" ever safe?
Frequency check: "thank" vs "tonk" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
You've compared "thank" and "tonk". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "thank" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tonk" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #199,958 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "thank" and "tonk" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tonk vs Toth". 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 #199,958 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.