fakedvsflakedWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#18,307
“faked” frequency rank
#49,922
“flaked” frequency rank
68229
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature faked flaked
Definition simple past and past participle of fake simple past and past participle of flake

Where the eye mixes faked and flaked

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
faked
6 ch
flaked

Visual trap between faked and flaked

A purely visual mix-up. faked (/feɪkt/) and flaked (/fleɪkt/) 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 68229, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

faked is recorded at frequency rank #18,307, classified as averb, pronounced /feɪkt/. flaked is at rank #49,922, tagged as averb, pronounced /fleɪkt/.

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 68229, this pair ranks #59,826 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of faked vs flaked

Shared letters: adefk. Private to "faked": -. Private to "flaked": l.

"faked" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "flaked" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fakedafked · faekd · fakde · fakedd · fakked · ffaked · fkaed
  • flakedfalked · fflaked · flaekd · flakde · flakedd · flakked · flkaed · fllaked

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "faked" and "flaked" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/feɪkt/ versus /fleɪkt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "faked" or "flaked"?
"faked" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,307 in our English list, against #49,922 for "flaked". 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 "faked" and "flaked" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "faked" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "flaked" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #59,826 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "faked" and "flaked" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "flaked vs flamed". 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 #59,826 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