yoke vs yore, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#25,982
“yoke” frequency rank: #45,179
“yore” frequency rank: 71161
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	yoke	yore
Definition	Senses relating to a frame around the neck.	A time long past.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set yoke and yore apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

yoke

4 ch

yore

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. yoke (/jəʊk/) and yore (/jɔː/) 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 a single letter - k in “yoke” becomes r in “yore”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71161, 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/. yore is at rank #45,179, tagged as anoun, pronounced /jɔː/.

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 71161, this pair ranks #47,780 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of yoke vs yore

Shared letters: eoy. Private to "yoke": k. Private to "yore": r.

"yoke" · 4 letters · shape VVCV · "yore" · 4 letters · shape VVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

yoke ← oyke · ykoe · yoek · yokke · yyoke
yore ← oyre · yoer · yorre · yroe · yyore

Frequency comparison

yoke#25,982

yore#45,179

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "yoke" and "yore" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (/jəʊk/ versus /jɔː/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "yoke" or "yore"?

"yoke" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,982 in our English list, against #45,179 for "yore". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering yoke vs yore

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “yoke” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable