acedvsakeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“aced” and “ake” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#46,285
“aced” frequency rank
#46,292
“ake” frequency rank
92577
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aced ake
Definition simple past and past participle of ace Obsolete spelling of ache.

Where the eye mixes aced and ake

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. aced runs 4 letters (VCVC) against ake's 3 (VCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
aced
3 ch
ake

Visual trap between aced and ake

A purely visual mix-up. aced (/eɪst/) and ake (/eɪk/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 92577, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aced is recorded at frequency rank #46,285, classified as averb, pronounced /eɪst/. ake is at rank #46,292, tagged as averb, pronounced /eɪk/.

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 92577, this pair ranks #2,511 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of aced vs ake

Shared letters: ae. Private to "aced": cd. Private to "ake": k.

"aced" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "ake" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aced ← acced · acde · acedd · aecd · caed

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "aced" and "ake" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/eɪst/ versus /eɪk/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "aced" or "ake"?
"aced" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #46,285 in our English list, against #46,292 for "ake". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "aced" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ake" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,511 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aced" and "ake" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ake vs amb". 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 #2,511 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list