Which to use
“thick” is an adjective and “tock” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,265
- “thick” frequency rank
- #39,613
- “tock” frequency rank
- 42878
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thick | tock |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Relatively great in extent from one surface to the opposite in its smallest solid dimension. | A clicking sound similar to one made by the hands of a clock. |
Where the eye mixes thick and tock
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses thick with tock
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: thick is /θɪk/ while tock is /tɑk/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42878, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
thick is recorded at frequency rank #3,265, classified as anadj, pronounced /θɪk/. tock is at rank #39,613, tagged as anoun, pronounced /tɑk/.
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 42878, this pair ranks #245,267 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of thick vs tock
Shared letters: ckt. Private to "thick": hi. Private to "tock": o.
"thick" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "tock" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "thick" for "tock" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "thick" or "tock" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "thick" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tock" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #245,267 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "thick" and "tock" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tock 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 #245,267 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.