hokevshoofWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“hoke” and “hoof” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#49,982
“hoke” frequency rank
#26,820
“hoof” frequency rank
76802
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hoke hoof
Definition Alternative form of hook. The tip of a toe of an ungulate such as a horse, ox or deer, strengthened by a thick keratin covering.

Where the eye mixes hoke and hoof

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. hoke (CVCV) and hoof (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
hoke
4 ch
hoof

Look-alike desk: hoke vs hoof

A purely visual mix-up. hoke (/hoʊk/) and hoof (/hʊf/) 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 76802, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hoke is recorded at frequency rank #49,982, classified as anoun, pronounced /hoʊk/. hoof is at rank #26,820, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hʊf/.

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 76802, this pair ranks #29,091 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hoke vs hoof

Shared letters: ho. Private to "hoke": ek. Private to "hoof": f.

"hoke" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "hoof" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hoke ← hhoke · hkoe · hoek · hokke · ohke
  • hoof ← hhoof · hofo · hooff · ohof

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hoke" and "hoof" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/hoʊk/ versus /hʊf/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "hoke" or "hoof" show up more?
"hoof" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,820 in our English list, against #49,982 for "hoke". 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 "hoke" and "hoof" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hoke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hoof" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #29,091 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hoke" and "hoof" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hoare vs hoke". 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 #29,091 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list