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PlainSpell

drink

/ˈdɹɪŋk/verb, noun

drink is spelled D-R-I-N-K. The wrong spelling people search most is drnik: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 769 of all searches for the word. Drink is a verb meaning “To consume (a liquid) through the mouth”.

How many letters and syllables are in drink?

Letters5: D-R-I-N-K
Syllables1
In writing79 times per million words; the 1,338th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, drnik, about 10 Bing searches a month (all of them)

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How do you spell drink?

Drink is spelled D-R-I-N-K. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 782 of the searches for drink in either form.

drinkthe right spelling7,810 searches a month
drniki and n swapped10 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is drink?

Drink appears 79 times per million words in written English, the 1,338th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce drink?

  • /ˈdɹɪŋk/
  • [ˈd͡ɹ̝ʷɪŋk] ~ [ˈd̠͡ɹ̠˔ʷɪŋk]
  • /ˈdɹiŋk/

Drink has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-drink.wav, En-us-drink.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with drink

Also written: eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of drink

  • drinks present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • drinking participle, present
  • drank past
  • drunk past, participle
  • drinken participle, past
  • dranken participle, past
  • dhrink
  • thrink

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does drink mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To consume (a liquid) through the mouth.

    He drank the water I gave him.

  2. 2

    To consume the liquid contained within (a bottle, glass, etc.).

    Jack drank the whole bottle by himself.

  3. 3

    To consume alcoholic beverages.

    You've been drinking, haven't you?

  4. 4

    To take in (a liquid), in any manner; to suck up; to absorb; to imbibe.

  5. 5

    To take in; to receive within one, through the senses; to inhale; to hear; to see.

  6. 6

    archaicTo toast (someone or something) with a drink, honour; to wish well (see drink to), especially

  7. 7

    archaicTo express one's desire for the accomplishment of a toast, sentiment or event, to wish, hope (for), forward (especially as 'to drink the health (of someone)').

  8. 8

    archaicobsolete[with to ‘someone or something’]

noun

  1. 1

    A beverage.

    What kind of drink would you like? We have soft drinks and hard drinks.

  2. 2

    Drinks in general; something to drink.

  3. 3

    A type of beverage (usually mixed).

    My favourite drink is the White Russian.

  4. 4

    A (served) alcoholic beverage.

    Can I buy you a drink?

  5. 5

    The action of drinking, especially with the verbs take or have.

    He was about to take a drink from his root beer.

  6. 6

    Alcoholic beverages in general.

  7. 7

    A standard drink.

    A drink of wine is about 5 ounces

  8. 8

    colloquialAny body of water.

    If he doesn't pay off the mafia, he’ll wear cement shoes to the bottom of the drink!

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Drink in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchboire (consume liquid through the mouth), verre, boisson (served beverage)
Germantrinken, saufen, trinke (consume liquid through the mouth), Getränk, Trinken, Trank (served beverage)
Portuguesebeber, tomar (consume liquid through the mouth), bebida (served beverage), coquetel (type of beverage – see also beverage, cocktail), drinque (served alcoholic beverage – see also shot…)
Spanishbeber, tomar, abrevar (consume liquid through the mouth), trago, copa (served alcoholic beverage – see also shot…), trincar (consume alcoholic beverages)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does drink come from?

From Middle English drinken, from Old English drincan (“to drink, swallow up, engulf”), from Proto-West Germanic *drinkan, from Proto-Germanic *drinkaną (“to drink”), of uncertain origin; possibly from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrenǵ- (“to draw into one's mouth, sip, gulp”), nasalised variant of *dʰreǵ- (“to draw, glide”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after drink