hokevshookedWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: hoke is a noun, hooked is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hoke” is a noun and “hooked” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,982
“hoke” frequency rank
#8,045
“hooked” frequency rank
58027
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hoke hooked
Definition Alternative form of hook. simple past and past participle of hook

Where the eye mixes hoke and hooked

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
hoke
6 ch
hooked

Why the eye confuses hoke with hooked

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hoke is /hoʊk/ while hooked is /hʊkt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58027, 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/. hooked is at rank #8,045, tagged as averb, pronounced /hʊkt/.

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 58027, this pair ranks #115,329 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hoke vs hooked

Shared letters: ehko. Private to "hoke": -. Private to "hooked": d.

"hoke" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "hooked" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hokehhoke · hkoe · hoek · hokke · ohke
  • hookedhhooked · hoked · hokoed · hooekd · hookde · hookedd · hookked · ohoked

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hoke" for "hooked" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hoke" is a noun and "hooked" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "hoke" vs "hooked" - which ranks higher?
"hooked" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,045 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.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hoke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hooked" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #115,329 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hoke" and "hooked" 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 #115,329 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