Which to use
“quake” and “quakes” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,100
- “quake” frequency rank
- #40,858
- “quakes” frequency rank
- 56958
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | quake | quakes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A trembling or shaking. | plural of quake |
Where the eye mixes quake and quakes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. quake runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against quakes's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between quake and quakes
A purely visual mix-up. quake (/kweɪk/) and quakes (/kweɪks/) 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 extra letter(s) - “quake” sits inside “quakes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56958, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
quake is recorded at frequency rank #16,100, classified as anoun, pronounced /kweɪk/. quakes is at rank #40,858, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kweɪks/.
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 56958, this pair ranks #122,562 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of quake vs quakes
Shared letters: aekqu. Private to "quake": -. Private to "quakes": s.
"quake" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "quakes" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "quake" and "quakes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "quake" vs "quakes" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "quake" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "quakes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #122,562 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "quake" and "quakes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "quacks vs quakes". 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 #122,562 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.