Which to use
“smoke” is a noun and “stoke” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #37,561
- “smoke” frequency rank
- #35,293
- “stoke” frequency rank
- 72854
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | smoke | stoke |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Bille à jouer. | Chauffer en nourrissant un feu. |
Where the eye mixes smoke and stoke
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. smoke and stoke follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses smoke with stoke
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: smoke is \smok\ while stoke is \stəʊk\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - m in “smoke” becomes t in “stoke”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72854, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
smoke is recorded at frequency rank #37,561, classified as anoun, pronounced \smok\. stoke is at rank #35,293, tagged as averb, pronounced \stəʊk\.
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 72854, this pair ranks #42,543 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of smoke vs stoke
Shared letters: ekos. Private to "smoke": m. Private to "stoke": t.
"smoke" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "stoke" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "smoke" for "stoke" ever safe?
Which is more common, "smoke" or "stoke"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "smoke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "stoke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #42,543 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "smoke" and "stoke" 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 #42,543 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.