Which to use
“wake” and “walked” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,807
- “wake” frequency rank
- #2,187
- “walked” frequency rank
- 3994
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wake | walked |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | (often followed by up) To stop sleeping. | simple past and past participle of walk |
Where the eye mixes wake and walked
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. wake (/weɪk/) and walked (/wɔːkt/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3994, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
wake is recorded at frequency rank #1,807, classified as averb, pronounced /weɪk/. walked is at rank #2,187, tagged as averb, pronounced /wɔːkt/.
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 3994, this pair ranks #520,328 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of wake vs walked
Shared letters: aekw. Private to "wake": -. Private to "walked": dl.
"wake" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "walked" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC