yolkvsyongConfusable pair

Quick tell: yolk is a noun, yong is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“yolk” is a noun and “yong” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#27,706
“yolk” frequency rank
#16,835
“yong” frequency rank
44541
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature yolk yong
Definition The yellow, spherical part of an egg that is surrounded by the white albumen, and serves as nutriment for the growing young. Obsolete spelling of young.

Letter map: yolk vs yong

Shared letters muted; letters that set yolk and yong apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. yolk and yong follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
yolk
4 ch
yong

Grammar separator: yolk vs yong

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: yolk is anoun and yonganadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44541, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

yolk is recorded at frequency rank #27,706, classified as anoun, pronounced /jəʊk/. yong is at rank #16,835, tagged as anadj.

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 44541, this pair ranks #229,564 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of yolk vs yong

Shared letters: oy. Private to "yolk": kl. Private to "yong": gn.

"yolk" · 4 letters · shape VVCC  ·  "yong" · 4 letters · shape VVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • yolk ← oylk · ylok · yokl · yolkk · yollk · yyolk
  • yong ← oyng · ynog · yogn · yongg · yonng · yyong

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "yolk" and "yong" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "yolk" is a noun and "yong" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "yolk" or "yong"?
"yong" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,835 in our English list, against #27,706 for "yolk". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "yolk" vs "yong" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "yolk" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "yong" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #229,564 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "yolk" and "yong" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "yolk vs yoyo". 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 #229,564 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