Which to use
“acre” is a noun and “ake” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,877
- “acre” frequency rank
- #46,292
- “ake” frequency rank
- 54169
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | acre | ake |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An English unit of land area (symbol: a. or ac.) originally denoting a day's ploughing for a yoke of oxen, now standardized as 4,840 square yards or 4,046.86 square metres. | Obsolete spelling of ache. |
Where the eye mixes acre and ake
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. acre runs 4 letters (VCCV) against ake's 3 (VCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses acre with ake
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: acre is /ˈeɪ.kə/ while ake is /eɪk/. 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 54169, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
acre is recorded at frequency rank #7,877, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈeɪ.kə/. 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 54169, this pair ranks #143,144 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of acre vs ake
Shared letters: ae. Private to "acre": cr. Private to "ake": k.
"acre" · 4 letters · shape VCCV · "ake" · 3 letters · shape VCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- acre ← accre · acrre
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "acre" and "ake" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "acre" or "ake" show up more?
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 "acre" 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 #143,144 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "acre" 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 #143,144 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.