Which to use
“ake” is a verb and “awake” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46,292
- “ake” frequency rank
- #5,658
- “awake” frequency rank
- 51950
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ake | awake |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Obsolete spelling of ache. | Not asleep; conscious. |
Where the eye mixes ake and awake
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ake is /eɪk/ while awake is /əˈweɪk/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “ake” sits inside “awake”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51950, 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/. awake is at rank #5,658, tagged as anadj, pronounced /əˈweɪk/.
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 51950, this pair ranks #161,135 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ake vs awake
Shared letters: aek. Private to "ake": -. Private to "awake": w.
"ake" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "awake" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- awake ← aawke · awaek · awakke · awkae · awwake · waake