awake
/əˈweɪk/
"awake" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“awake” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #5,658 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #5,658
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 19
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Not asleep; conscious.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | awake |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /əˈweɪk/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #5,658 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 19 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “awake” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for awake is 5 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əˈweɪk/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,658 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for awake, with forms such as "aawke", "awaek", and "awakke". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 19 confusable-pair relationships, "awe", "away", "award", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ud-s-? Proto-Indo-European *h₂u-s-? Proto-Germanic *uz- Proto-West Germanic *uʀ- Old English ar- Old English ā- Proto-Indo-European *weǵ-der. Proto-Germanic *wakaną Proto-West Germanic *wakan Old English wacan Old English… The correct English form is awake, spelled A-W-A-K-E.
Definition
- 1Not asleep; conscious.
- 2Alert, aware.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ud-s-? Proto-Indo-European *h₂u-s-? Proto-Germanic *uz- Proto-West Germanic *uʀ- Old English ar- Old English ā- Proto-Indo-European *weǵ-der. Proto-Germanic *wakaną Proto-West Germanic *wakan Old English wacan Old English āwacan Middle English awaken Middle English awake English awake From Middle English awake, a shortened form of awaken (“awakened, awake”), past participle of Middle English awaken (“to awaken”). See verb below. Compare Saterland Frisian woak (“awake”), German Low German waak (“awake”), German wach (“awake”).
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: aawke,awaek,awakke,awkae,awwake,waake
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of awake - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “awake”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-W-A-K-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /əˈweɪk/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “awe” - see the side-by-side comparison. awake vs awe
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.