Which to use
“spoke” and “stone” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,465
- “spoke” frequency rank
- #1,676
- “stone” frequency rank
- 4141
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | spoke | stone |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A support structure that connects the axle or the hub of a wheel to the rim. | A hard earthen substance that can form rocks; especially, such substance when regarded as a building material. |
Where the eye mixes spoke and stone
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses spoke with stone
A purely visual mix-up. spoke (/spəʊk/) and stone (/stəʊ̯n/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4141, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
spoke is recorded at frequency rank #2,465, classified as anoun, pronounced /spəʊk/. stone is at rank #1,676, tagged as anoun, pronounced /stəʊ̯n/.
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 4141, this pair ranks #519,858 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of spoke vs stone
Shared letters: eos. Private to "spoke": kp. Private to "stone": nt.
"spoke" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "stone" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "spoke" for "stone" ever safe?
Frequency check: "spoke" vs "stone" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "spoke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "stone" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #519,858 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "spoke" and "stone" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sone vs spoke". 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 #519,858 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.