smoke

/sməʊk/

//sməʊk// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"smoke" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“smoke” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #2,181. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#2,181
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords
7
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The visible vapor/vapour, gases, and fine particles given off by burning or smoldering material.

Corpus desk

Index EN-smoke · smoke · English

smoke · rank #2,181 · 7 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #2,181
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 7 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH shoes

Nearest frequency peer: shoes (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “smoke”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “smoke” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

smoke vs soe
60% similar
smoke vs some
60% similar
smoke vs sole
60% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for smoke
PropertyValue
Headwordsmoke
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/sməʊk/
Letters5
Frequency rank#2,181
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “smoke”

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).smokelands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Same rarity band neighbours include “shoes” (#2,180), “squad” (#2,182), “scientific” (#2,179). Among 6,566 “S” headwords, “smoke” is #2,181. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 7 spelling variants around smoke (IPA /sməʊk/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #2,181 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 13 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for smoke, with forms such as "msoke", "smkoe", and "smmoke". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "soe", "some", "sole", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English smoke, from Old English smoca (“smoke”), probably a derivative of the verb (see below). Related to Dutch smook (“smoke”), Middle Low German smôk (“smoke”), German Schmauch (“smoke (from a gun barrel)”). The correct English form is smoke, spelled S-M-O-K-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    The visible vapor/vapour, gases, and fine particles given off by burning or smoldering material.
  2. 2
    A cigarette.
  3. 3
    Anything to smoke (e.g. cigarettes, marijuana, etc.)
  4. 4
    An instance of smoking a cigarette, cigar, etc.; the duration of this act.
  5. 5
    A fleeting illusion; something insubstantial, evanescent, unreal, transitory, or without result.
  6. 6
    Something used to obscure or conceal; an obscuring condition; see also smoke and mirrors.
  7. 7
    A light grey color tinted with blue.
  8. 8
    Bother, trouble; problems; hassle.
  9. 9
    Any cloud of solid particles or liquid vapor dispersed into the air; particularly one of:
  10. 10
    Any cloud of solid particles or liquid vapor dispersed into the air; particularly one of:
  11. 11
    Any cloud of solid particles or liquid vapor dispersed into the air; particularly one of:
  12. 12
    A fastball.
  13. 13
    A distinct column of smoke, such as indicating a burning area or fire.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how smoke appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. If those were the days, however, when steam was triumphant, they were also the days of smoke. Nowhere was this so apparent as at "Kings Cross (Suburban)" where, one after another, the Great Northern tank engines thumped their way up the incline and emerged from the tunnel, in clouds of steam and smoke, to pound their way up the last few hundred feet of gr…
  2. Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia. The cheapest way to clear logged woodland is to burn it, producing an acrid cloud of foul white smoke that, carried by the wind, can cover hundr…

Etymology

From Middle English smoke, from Old English smoca (“smoke”), probably a derivative of the verb (see below). Related to Dutch smook (“smoke”), Middle Low German smôk (“smoke”), German Schmauch (“smoke (from a gun barrel)”).

Synonyms

cigciggycancer stickcoffin nailfag

This word in other languages

humo(Español)fumée(Français)Rauch(Deutsch)fumo(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • msoke
  • smkoe
  • smmoke
  • smoek
  • smokke
  • somke
  • ssmoke

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of smoke - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

msoke2smkoe2smmoke1smoek2smokke1somke2ssmoke1
Edit distance from "smoke"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "smoke"?
"smoke" is spelled S-M-O-K-E. The IPA pronunciation is /sməʊk/.
What does "smoke" mean?
As a noun, "smoke" means: The visible vapor/vapour, gases, and fine particles given off by burning or smoldering material.
What words are commonly confused with "smoke"?
"smoke" is commonly confused with "soe", "some", "sole". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "smoke"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "smoke" is /sməʊk/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "smoke"?
From Middle English smoke, from Old English smoca (“smoke”), probably a derivative of the verb (see below). Related to Dutch smook (“smoke”), Middle Low German smôk (“smoke”), German Schmauch (“smoke (from a gun barrel)”). See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "smoke", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

shoes#2,180squad#2,182teach#2,183saved#2,177

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).

tests7 variantspulled7 variantskeeps7 variantsheads7 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list