Which to use
“bakery” is a noun and “bakes” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,650
- “bakery” frequency rank
- #40,135
- “bakes” frequency rank
- 51785
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bakery | bakes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A place in which bread (and often other baked goods such as cakes) is baked and/or sold. | third-person singular simple present indicative of bake |
Where the eye mixes bakery and bakes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. bakery runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against bakes's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: bakery vs bakes
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bakery is /ˈbeɪ.kə.ɹi/ while bakes is /beɪks/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51785, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bakery is recorded at frequency rank #11,650, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈbeɪ.kə.ɹi/. 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 51785, this pair ranks #162,532 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of bakery vs bakes
Shared letters: abek. Private to "bakery": ry. Private to "bakes": s.
"bakery" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "bakes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "bakery" for "bakes" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "bakery" or "bakes" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "bakery" 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 #162,532 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bakery" and "bakes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bails vs bakes". 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 #162,532 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.