smilevssmokeTell them apart

Which to use

“smile” and “smoke” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#27,233
“smile” frequency rank
#37,561
“smoke” frequency rank
64794
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature smile smoke
Definition Sourire. Bille à jouer.

Letter map: smile vs smoke

Shared letters muted; letters that set smile and smoke apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. smile and smoke follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
smile
5 ch
smoke

Corpus notes: smile and smoke

smile and smoke are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64794, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

smile is recorded at frequency rank #27,233, classified as anoun. smoke is at rank #37,561, tagged as anoun, pronounced \smok\.

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 64794, this pair ranks #75,297 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of smile vs smoke

Shared letters: ems. Private to "smile": il. Private to "smoke": ko.

"smile" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "smoke" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • smile ← msile · simle · smiel · smille · smlie · smmile · ssmile
  • smoke ← msoke · smkoe · smmoke · smoek · smokke · somke · ssmoke

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "smile" and "smoke" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary French text, does "smile" or "smoke" show up more?
"smile" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,233 in our French list, against #37,561 for "smoke". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "smile" vs "smoke" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "smile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "smoke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #75,297 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "smile" and "smoke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seok vs smoke". 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 #75,297 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