likevslukeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: like is a noun, luke is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“like” is a noun and “luke” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,672
“like” frequency rank
#8,732
“luke” frequency rank
14404
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature like luke
Definition Signal d’approbation d’une publication sur Facebook ou, par extension, sur un média social. Sans considération pour, sans tenir compte de.

Where the eye mixes like and luke

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
like
4 ch
luke

Visual trap between like and luke

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: like is \lajk\ while luke is \ˈlukɛ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - i in “like” becomes u in “luke”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14404, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

like is recorded at frequency rank #5,672, classified as anoun, pronounced \lajk\. luke is at rank #8,732, tagged as aprep, pronounced \ˈlukɛ\.

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 14404, this pair ranks #396,833 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of like vs luke

Shared letters: ekl. Private to "like": i. Private to "luke": u.

"like" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "luke" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • likeilke · liek · likke · lkie · llike
  • lukelkue · lluke · luek · lukke · ulke

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "like" for "luke" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "like" is a noun and "luke" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "like" or "luke" show up more?
"like" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,672 in our French list, against #8,732 for "luke". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "like" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "luke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #396,833 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "like" and "luke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "liker vs luke". 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 #396,833 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list