yokevsyolksTell them apart

Which to use

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

#25,982
“yoke” frequency rank
#36,021
“yolks” frequency rank
62003
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature yoke yolks
Definition Senses relating to a frame around the neck. plural of yolk

Where the eye mixes yoke and yolks

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. yoke runs 4 letters (VVCV) against yolks's 5 (VVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
yoke
5 ch
yolks

Look-alike desk: yoke vs yolks

A purely visual mix-up. yoke (/jəʊk/) and yolks (/jəʊks/) 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 62003, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

yoke is recorded at frequency rank #25,982, classified as anoun, pronounced /jəʊk/. yolks is at rank #36,021, tagged as anoun, pronounced /jəʊks/.

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 62003, this pair ranks #90,933 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of yoke vs yolks

Shared letters: koy. Private to "yoke": e. Private to "yolks": ls.

"yoke" · 4 letters · shape VVCV  ·  "yolks" · 5 letters · shape VVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • yoke ← oyke · ykoe · yoek · yokke · yyoke
  • yolks ← oylks · yloks · yokls · yolkks · yolkss · yollks · yolsk · yyolks

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "yoke" and "yolks" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/jəʊk/ versus /jəʊks/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "yoke" or "yolks" show up more?
"yoke" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,982 in our English list, against #36,021 for "yolks". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "yoke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "yolks" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #90,933 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "yoke" and "yolks" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "yolks vs you's". 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 #90,933 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