Which to use
“stack” and “stake” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,626
- “stack” frequency rank
- #5,631
- “stake” frequency rank
- 12257
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | stack | stake |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A pile. | A piece of wood or other material, usually long and slender, pointed at one end so as to be easily driven into the ground as a marker or a support or stay. |
Where the eye mixes stack and stake
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses stack with stake
A purely visual mix-up. stack (/stæk/) and stake (/steɪk/) 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 12257, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
stack is recorded at frequency rank #6,626, classified as anoun, pronounced /stæk/. stake is at rank #5,631, tagged as anoun, pronounced /steɪk/.
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 12257, this pair ranks #482,580 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of stack vs stake
Shared letters: akst. Private to "stack": c. Private to "stake": e.
"stack" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "stake" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "stack" for "stake" ever safe?
Frequency check: "stack" vs "stake" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "stack" and "stake" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "stack" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "stake" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #482,580 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "stack" and "stake" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stack vs staph". 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 #482,580 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.