blakevsblamesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: blake is a adjective, blames is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“blake” is an adjective and “blames” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,480
“blake” frequency rank
#13,863
“blames” frequency rank
19343
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature blake blames
Definition Yellow, as butter or cheese. third-person singular simple present indicative of blame

Where the eye mixes blake and blames

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
blake
6 ch
blames

Look-alike desk: blake vs blames

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: blake is /bleɪk/ while blames is /bleɪmz/. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19343, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

blake is recorded at frequency rank #5,480, classified as anadj, pronounced /bleɪk/. blames is at rank #13,863, tagged as averb, pronounced /bleɪmz/.

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 19343, this pair ranks #438,834 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of blake vs blames

Shared letters: abel. Private to "blake": k. Private to "blames": ms.

"blake" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "blames" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • blakebalke · bblake · blaek · blakke · blkae · bllake · lbake
  • blamesbalmes · bblames · blaems · blamess · blammes · blamse · bllames · blmaes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "blake" and "blames" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "blake" is an adjective and "blames" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "blake" vs "blames" - which ranks higher?
"blake" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,480 in our English list, against #13,863 for "blames". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "blake" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "blames" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #438,834 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "blake" and "blames" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "beamer vs blames". 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 #438,834 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