talkvstuskWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#12,490
“talk” frequency rank
#46,504
“tusk” frequency rank
58994
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature talk tusk
Definition Talk-show : débat télévisuel ou radiophonique. Défense (dents).

Where the eye mixes talk and tusk

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
talk
4 ch
tusk

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. talk (\tok\) and tusk (\ˈtʌsk\) 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 58994, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

talk is recorded at frequency rank #12,490, classified as anoun, pronounced \tok\. tusk is at rank #46,504, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈtʌsk\.

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 58994, this pair ranks #105,689 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of talk vs tusk

Shared letters: kt. Private to "talk": al. Private to "tusk": su.

"talk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "tusk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • talkatlk · takl · talkk · tallk · tlak · ttalk
  • tusktsuk · ttusk · tuks · tuskk · tussk · utsk

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "talk" and "tusk" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\tok\ versus \ˈtʌsk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "talk" or "tusk"?
"talk" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,490 in our French list, against #46,504 for "tusk". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "talk" and "tusk". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "talk" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tusk" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #105,689 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "talk" and "tusk" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "turf vs tusk". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list