spikedvsstokedTell them apart

Quick tell: spiked is a adjective, stoked is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“spiked” is an adjective and “stoked” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#21,666
“spiked” frequency rank
#16,360
“stoked” frequency rank
38026
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature spiked stoked
Definition Containing alcohol or drugs, often without the knowledge of those who partake. simple past and past participle of stoke

Letter map: spiked vs stoked

Shared letters muted; letters that set spiked and stoked apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. spiked and stoked follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
spiked
6 ch
stoked

Part-of-speech tell for spiked / stoked

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: spiked is anadjective and stokedaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38026, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

spiked is recorded at frequency rank #21,666, classified as anadj. stoked is at rank #16,360, tagged as averb, pronounced /stoʊkt/.

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 38026, this pair ranks #289,470 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of spiked vs stoked

Shared letters: deks. Private to "spiked": ip. Private to "stoked": ot.

"spiked" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "stoked" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • spiked ← psiked · sipked · spiekd · spikde · spikedd · spikked · spkied · sppiked
  • stoked ← sotked · sstoked · stkoed · stoekd · stokde · stokedd · stokked · sttoked

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "spiked" and "stoked" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "spiked" is an adjective and "stoked" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "spiked" or "stoked" show up more?
"stoked" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,360 in our English list, against #21,666 for "spiked". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "spiked" and "stoked". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "spiked" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stoked" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #289,470 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "spiked" and "stoked" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stoked vs stooped". 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 #289,470 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