yoke
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "yoke", 4-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "yoke" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "yoke" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
yoke is aEnglishnoun. It means: Senses relating to a frame around the neck. Pronounced /jəʊk/. Often confused with you and yoo.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | yoke |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /jəʊk/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #25,982 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for yoke is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /jəʊk/. Corpus data places it at rank #25,982 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 25 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 5 documented wrong-spelling variants for yoke, with forms such as "oyke", "ykoe", and "yoek". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "you", "yoo", "yon", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English yok, yoke, ȝok from Old English ġeoc (“yoke”), from Proto-Germanic *juką (“yoke”), from Proto-Indo-European *yugóm (“yoke”), from *yewg- (“to join; to tie together, yoke”). Doublet of yuga, jugum, yoga and possibly yogh. Senses 3.1 (“are… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is yoke, spelled Y-O-K-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Senses relating to a frame around the neck.
- 2Senses relating to a frame around the neck.
- 3Senses relating to a frame around the neck.
- 4Senses relating to a frame around the neck.
- 5Senses relating to a frame around the neck.
- 6Senses relating to a frame around the neck.
- 7Senses relating to a frame around the neck.
- 8Senses relating to a frame around the neck.
- 9Senses relating to a frame around the neck.
- 10Senses relating to a frame around the neck.
- 11Senses relating to a frame around the neck.
- 12Senses relating to a frame around the neck.
- 13Senses relating to a frame around the neck.
- 14Senses relating to a frame around the neck.
- 15Senses relating to a frame around the neck.
- 16Senses relating to a pair of harnessed draught animals.
- 17Senses relating to a pair of harnessed draught animals.
- 18Senses relating to a pair of harnessed draught animals.
- 19Senses relating to a pair of harnessed draught animals.
- 20Senses relating to a pair of harnessed draught animals.
- 21Senses relating to a pair of harnessed draught animals.
- 22Senses relating to quantities, and other extended uses.
- 23Senses relating to quantities, and other extended uses.
- 24Senses relating to quantities, and other extended uses.
- 25Senses relating to quantities, and other extended uses.
Etymology
From Middle English yok, yoke, ȝok from Old English ġeoc (“yoke”), from Proto-Germanic *juką (“yoke”), from Proto-Indo-European *yugóm (“yoke”), from *yewg- (“to join; to tie together, yoke”). Doublet of yuga, jugum, yoga and possibly yogh. Senses 3.1 (“area of arable land”) and 3.2 (“amount of work done with draught animals”) probably referred to the area of land that could generally be ploughed by yoked draught animals within a given time.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: oyke,ykoe,yoek,yokke,yyoke
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for yoke
Misspelling Variants of "yoke"
Frequency rank: #25,982 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "yoke"?
What does "yoke" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "yoke"?
How do you pronounce "yoke"?
What is the origin of the word "yoke"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter Y in our English index: