blankvsblockWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: blank is a adjective, block is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“blank” is an adjective and “block” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,007
“blank” frequency rank
#17,883
“block” frequency rank
61890
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature blank block
Definition En blanco. Bloque₁.

Where the eye mixes blank and block

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
blank
5 ch
block

Visual trap between blank and block

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: blank is /blæŋk/ while block is /blɒk/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61890, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

blank is recorded at frequency rank #44,007, classified as anadj, pronounced /blæŋk/. block is at rank #17,883, tagged as anoun, pronounced /blɒk/.

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 61890, this pair ranks #53,922 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of blank vs block

Shared letters: bkl. Private to "blank": an. Private to "block": co.

"blank" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "block" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • blankbalnk · bblank · blakn · blankk · blannk · bllank · blnak · lbank
  • blockbblock · blcok · bllock · blocck · blockk · blokc · bolck · lbock

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "blank" for "block" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "blank" is an adjective and "block" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "blank" or "block" show up more?
"block" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,883 in our Spanish list, against #44,007 for "blank". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "blank" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "block" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #53,922 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "blank" and "block" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bane vs blank". 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 #53,922 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list