Which to use
“spike” is a noun and “spiky” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,612
- “spike” frequency rank
- #39,582
- “spiky” frequency rank
- 47194
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | spike | spiky |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A sort of very large nail. | Of a plant: producing spikes (“ears (as of corn); inflorescences in which sessile flowers are arranged on unbranched elongated axes”). |
Where the eye mixes spike and spiky
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. spike and spiky follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: spike vs spiky
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: spike is /spaɪk/ while spiky is /ˈspaɪki/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “spike” becomes y in “spiky”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47194, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
spike is recorded at frequency rank #7,612, classified as anoun, pronounced /spaɪk/. spiky is at rank #39,582, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈspaɪki/.
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 47194, this pair ranks #204,680 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of spike vs spiky
Shared letters: ikps. Private to "spike": e. Private to "spiky": y.
"spike" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "spiky" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "spike" and "spiky" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "spike" or "spiky"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "spike" and "spiky" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "spike" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "spiky" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #204,680 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "spike" and "spiky" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "spiky vs sucky". 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 #204,680 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.