Which to use
“black” and “blake” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #326
- “black” frequency rank
- #5,480
- “blake” frequency rank
- 5806
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | black | blake |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Absorbing all light and reflecting none; dark and hueless. | Yellow, as butter or cheese. |
Where the eye mixes black and blake
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses black with blake
A purely visual mix-up. black (/blæk/) and blake (/bleɪk/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5806, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
black is recorded at frequency rank #326, classified as anadj, pronounced /blæk/. blake is at rank #5,480, tagged as anadj, pronounced /bleɪk/.
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 5806, this pair ranks #513,952 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of black vs blake
Shared letters: abkl. Private to "black": c. Private to "blake": e.
"black" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "blake" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "black" for "blake" ever safe?
Which is more common, "black" or "blake"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "black" and "blake" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "black" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "blake" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #513,952 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "black" and "blake" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "blake vs blanked". 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 #513,952 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.