akevsallTell them apart

Quick tell: ake is a verb, all is a determiner, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ake” is a verb and “all” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,292
“ake” frequency rank
#32
“all” frequency rank
46324
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ake all
Definition Obsolete spelling of ache. Every individual or anything of the given class, with no exceptions (the noun or noun phrase denoting the class must be plural or uncountable).

Where the eye mixes ake and all

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
ake
3 ch
all

Look-alike desk: ake vs all

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ake is /eɪk/ while all is /ɔːl/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46324, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ake is recorded at frequency rank #46,292, classified as averb, pronounced /eɪk/. all is at rank #32, tagged as adet, pronounced /ɔːl/.

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 46324, this pair ranks #212,863 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ake vs all

Shared letters: a. Private to "ake": ek. Private to "all": l.

"ake" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "all" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ake" for "all" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ake" is a verb and "all" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ake" vs "all" - which ranks higher?
"all" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32 in our English list, against #46,292 for "ake". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "ake" and "all" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ake" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "all" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #212,863 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ake" and "all" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ake vs amb". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #212,863 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