Which to use
“bade” and “bakes” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,539
- “bade” frequency rank
- #40,135
- “bakes” frequency rank
- 82674
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bade | bakes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past of bid | third-person singular simple present indicative of bake |
Where the eye mixes bade and bakes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. bade runs 4 letters (CVCV) against bakes's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses bade with bakes
A purely visual mix-up. bade (/bæd/) and bakes (/beɪks/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82674, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bade is recorded at frequency rank #42,539, classified as averb, pronounced /bæd/. bakes is at rank #40,135, tagged as averb, pronounced /beɪks/.
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 82674, this pair ranks #15,283 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of bade vs bakes
Shared letters: abe. Private to "bade": d. Private to "bakes": ks.
"bade" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "bakes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "bade" and "bakes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "bade" or "bakes" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "bade" and "bakes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "bade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bakes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #15,283 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bade" and "bakes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bade vs bandy". 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 #15,283 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.