Which to use
“smoked” and “smoky” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,093
- “smoked” frequency rank
- #18,957
- “smoky” frequency rank
- 27050
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | smoked | smoky |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Of food, treated with smoke, often for flavor or as a method of preservation. | Filled with smoke. |
Where the eye mixes smoked and smoky
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. smoked runs 6 letters (CCVCVC) against smoky's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses smoked with smoky
A purely visual mix-up. smoked (/sməʊkt/) and smoky (/ˈsmoʊki/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27050, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
smoked is recorded at frequency rank #8,093, classified as anadj, pronounced /sməʊkt/. smoky is at rank #18,957, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈsmoʊki/.
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 27050, this pair ranks #382,045 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of smoked vs smoky
Shared letters: kmos. Private to "smoked": de. Private to "smoky": y.
"smoked" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "smoky" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "smoked" and "smoky" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "smoked" or "smoky" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "smoked" and "smoky" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "smoked" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "smoky" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #382,045 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "smoked" and "smoky" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "smock vs smoky". 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 #382,045 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.