Which to use
“lake” is a noun and “liken” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,319
- “lake” frequency rank
- #39,513
- “liken” frequency rank
- 49832
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lake | liken |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Stillgewässer, das vollständig von einer Landfläche umgeben ist; See | etwas nach seinem Geschmack finden, Wohlgefallen an etwas finden; jemanden leiden mögen |
Where the eye mixes lake and liken
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lake runs 4 letters (CVCV) against liken's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between lake and liken
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lake is [leɪk] while liken is [ˈlaɪ̯kn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49832, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lake is recorded at frequency rank #10,319, classified as anoun, pronounced [leɪk]. liken is at rank #39,513, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈlaɪ̯kn̩].
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 49832, this pair ranks #1,196,650 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of lake vs liken
Shared letters: ekl. Private to "lake": a. Private to "liken": in.
"lake" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "liken" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lake" and "liken" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "lake" or "liken" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "lake" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "liken" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,196,650 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lake" and "liken" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lauen vs liken". 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 #1,196,650 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.