ake vs are, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#46,292
“ake” frequency rank: #19
“are” frequency rank: 46311
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ake	are
Definition	Obsolete spelling of ache.	second-person singular simple present of be

Where the eye mixes ake and are

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch

ake

3 ch

are

Visual trap between ake and are

A purely visual mix-up. ake (/eɪk/) and are (/ə(ɹ)/) 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 a single letter - k in “ake” becomes r in “are”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46311, 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/. are is at rank #19, tagged as averb, pronounced /ə(ɹ)/.

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 46311, this pair ranks #212,976 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ake vs are

Shared letters: ae. Private to "ake": k. Private to "are": r.

"ake" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "are" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ake" for "are" ever safe?

No. They are said differently (/eɪk/ versus /ə(ɹ)/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "ake" or "are"?

"are" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19 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.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "ake" and "are" 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 "are" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #212,976 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ake" and "are" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ake vs amb". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #212,976 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.