akevsawokeConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#46,292
“ake” frequency rank
#23,753
“awoke” frequency rank
70045
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ake awoke
Definition Obsolete spelling of ache. simple past of awake

Where the eye mixes ake and awoke

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
ake
5 ch
awoke

Look-alike desk: ake vs awoke

A purely visual mix-up. ake (/eɪk/) and awoke (/əˈwəʊk/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70045, 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/. awoke is at rank #23,753, tagged as averb, pronounced /əˈwəʊk/.

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 70045, this pair ranks #52,148 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ake vs awoke

Shared letters: aek. Private to "ake": -. Private to "awoke": ow.

"ake" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "awoke" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • awokeaowke · awkoe · awoek · awokke · awwoke · waoke

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ake" and "awoke" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/eɪk/ versus /əˈwəʊk/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "ake" or "awoke"?
"awoke" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,753 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.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "ake" and "awoke" 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 "awoke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #52,148 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ake" and "awoke" 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 #52,148 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