dockvsducksWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“dock” and “ducks” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#31,449
“dock” frequency rank
#34,503
“ducks” frequency rank
65952
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dock ducks
Definition Vaste bassin entouré de quais, dans lequel entrent les vaisseaux pour déposer leurs cargaisons ou opérer leur chargement. Pluriel de duck.

Where the eye mixes dock and ducks

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. dock runs 4 letters (CVCC) against ducks's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
dock
5 ch
ducks

Look-alike desk: dock vs ducks

A purely visual mix-up. dock (\dɔk\) and ducks (\ˈdʌks\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65952, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dock is recorded at frequency rank #31,449, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɔk\. ducks is at rank #34,503, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈdʌks\.

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 65952, this pair ranks #70,015 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dock vs ducks

Shared letters: cdk. Private to "dock": o. Private to "ducks": su.

"dock" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "ducks" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dock ← dcok · ddock · docck · dockk · dokc · odck
  • ducks ← dcuks · dducks · duccks · duckks · duckss · ducsk · dukcs · udcks

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dock" and "ducks" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\dɔk\ versus \ˈdʌks\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "dock" vs "ducks" - which ranks higher?
"dock" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,449 in our French list, against #34,503 for "ducks". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "dock" and "ducks" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dock" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ducks" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #70,015 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dock" and "ducks" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "DCI vs dock". 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 #70,015 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list