hokevshoverWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#49,982
“hoke” frequency rank
#20,667
“hover” frequency rank
70649
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hoke hover
Definition Alternative form of hook. To keep (something, such as an aircraft) in a stationary state in the air.

Where the eye mixes hoke and hover

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
hoke
5 ch
hover

Look-alike desk: hoke vs hover

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hoke is /hoʊk/ while hover is /ˈhɒvə/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 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 70649, 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/. hover is at rank #20,667, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈhɒvə/.

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 70649, this pair ranks #49,701 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hoke vs hover

Shared letters: eho. Private to "hoke": k. Private to "hover": rv.

"hoke" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "hover" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hokehhoke · hkoe · hoek · hokke · ohke
  • hoverhhover · hoevr · hoverr · hovre · hovver · hvoer · ohver

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hoke" for "hover" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hoke" is a noun and "hover" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "hoke" or "hover" show up more?
"hover" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,667 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.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hoke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hover" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #49,701 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hoke" and "hover" 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 #49,701 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