spokevsstoreWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“spoke” and “store” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,465
“spoke” frequency rank
#1,030
“store” frequency rank
3495
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature spoke store
Definition A support structure that connects the axle or the hub of a wheel to the rim. A place where items may be accumulated or routinely kept.

Where the eye mixes spoke and store

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

5 ch
spoke
5 ch
store

Why the eye confuses spoke with store

A purely visual mix-up. spoke (/spəʊk/) and store (/stɔː/) 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 3495, 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/. store is at rank #1,030, tagged as anoun, pronounced /stɔː/.

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 3495, this pair ranks #521,945 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of spoke vs store

Shared letters: eos. Private to "spoke": kp. Private to "store": rt.

"spoke" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "store" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • spokepsoke · sopke · spkoe · spoek · spokke · sppoke · sspoke
  • storesotre · sstore · stoer · storre · stroe · sttore · tsore

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "spoke" and "store" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/spəʊk/ versus /stɔː/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "spoke" or "store" show up more?
"store" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,030 in our English list, against #2,465 for "spoke". 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 "spoke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "store" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #521,945 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "spoke" and "store" 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 #521,945 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