duckvsdunkConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#25,624
“duck” frequency rank
#44,992
“dunk” frequency rank
70616
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature duck dunk
Definition Toile épaisse et résistante utilisée pour des bâches, de tentes, des voiles, etc. Désigne un smash au jeu de basket.

Letter map: duck vs dunk

Shared letters muted; letters that set duck and dunk apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
duck
4 ch
dunk

Spelling & dictionary notes on duck vs dunk

duck and dunk are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - c in “duck” becomes n in “dunk”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70616, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

duck is recorded at frequency rank #25,624, classified as anoun. 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 70616, this pair ranks #50,684 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of duck vs dunk

Shared letters: dku. Private to "duck": c. Private to "dunk": n.

"duck" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "dunk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • duckdcuk · dduck · ducck · duckk · dukc · udck
  • dunkddunk · dnuk · dukn · dunkk · dunnk · udnk

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "duck" for "dunk" ever safe?
No. They differ by a single letter - c in “duck” becomes n in “dunk”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "duck" vs "dunk" - which ranks higher?
"duck" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,624 in our French list, against #44,992 for "dunk". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "duck" and "dunk".

  • Full dictionary entry for "duck" 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 #50,684 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "duck" 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 #50,684 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