dock
/dɒk/
"dock" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“dock” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #7,218. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #7,218
- frequency rank, English
- 26,416
- “D” headwords
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any of the genus Rumex of coarse weedy plants with small green flowers related to buckwheat, especially bitter dock (Rumex obtusifolius), and used as potherbs and in folk medicine, especially in cu...
Corpus desk
Index EN-dock · dock · English
dock · rank #7,218 · 6 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #7,218
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 6 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 26,416
- PHOTO-FINISH digging
Nearest frequency peer: digging (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “dock”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- debts
debts
92,786 corpus weight
- denial
denial
92,785 corpus weight
- digging
digging
92,784 corpus weight
- dock
dock
92,783 corpus weight
- entrepreneur
entrepreneur
92,782 corpus weight
- evident
evident
92,781 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “dock” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | dock |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /dɒk/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #7,218 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “dock” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 6 spelling variants around dock (IPA /dɒk/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #7,218 among 26,416 “D” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for dock, with forms such as "dcok", "ddock", and "docck". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "dog", "don", "dot", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English dokke, from Old English docce, from Proto-West Germanic *dokkā, from Proto-Germanic *dukkǭ (compare Old Danish dokke (“water-dock”), West Flemish dokke, dokkebladeren (“coltsfoot, butterbur”)), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰew- (“dark”) (c… The correct English form is dock, spelled D-O-C-K.
Definition
- 1Any of the genus Rumex of coarse weedy plants with small green flowers related to buckwheat, especially bitter dock (Rumex obtusifolius), and used as potherbs and in folk medicine, especially in curing nettle rash.
- 2A burdock plant, or the leaves of that plant.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how dock appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
And vnder neath him his courageous ſteed, / The fierce Spumador trode them downe like docks […]
Etymology
From Middle English dokke, from Old English docce, from Proto-West Germanic *dokkā, from Proto-Germanic *dukkǭ (compare Old Danish dokke (“water-dock”), West Flemish dokke, dokkebladeren (“coltsfoot, butterbur”)), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰew- (“dark”) (compare Latvian duga (“scum, slime on water”)).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- dcok
- ddock
- docck
- dockk
- dokc
- odck
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of dock - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "dock", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.