Which to use
“dock” and “dunk” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #31,449
- “dock” frequency rank
- #44,992
- “dunk” frequency rank
- 76441
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dock | dunk |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Vaste bassin entouré de quais, dans lequel entrent les vaisseaux pour déposer leurs cargaisons ou opérer leur chargement. | Désigne un smash au jeu de basket. |
Where the eye mixes dock and dunk
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. dock and dunk follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses dock with dunk
A purely visual mix-up. dock (\dɔk\) and dunk (\dœŋk\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76441, 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\. dunk is at rank #44,992, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dœŋk\.
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 76441, this pair ranks #31,142 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of dock vs dunk
Shared letters: dk. Private to "dock": co. Private to "dunk": nu.
"dock" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "dunk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "dock" and "dunk" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "dock" vs "dunk" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "dock" and "dunk" 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 "dunk" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #31,142 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dock" and "dunk" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "drunk vs dunk". 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 #31,142 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.