# bake

> English word · Verb · IPA /beɪk/ · frequency rank #8,121

## Definitions
1. To cook (something) in an oven (for someone).
2. To be cooked in an oven.
3. To be warmed to drying and hardening.
4. To dry by heat.
5. To be hot.
6. To cause to be hot.
7. To smoke marijuana.
8. To harden by cold.
9. To fix (lighting, reflections, etc.) as part of the texture of an object to improve rendering performance.
10. To incorporate into something greater.

## Etymology
From Middle English baken, from Old English bacan (“to bake”), from Proto-West Germanic *bakan, from Proto-Germanic *bakaną (“to bake”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₃g- (“to roast, bake”).
Cognate with West Frisian bakke (“to bake”), Dutch bakken (“to bake”), Low German backen (“to bake”), German backen (“to bake”), Norwegian Bokmål bake (“to bake”), Danish bage (“to bake”), Swedish baka (“to bake”), Ancient Greek φώγω (phṓgō, “roast”, verb).

## Easily confused with
- **be** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bake-vs-be)
- **bar** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bake-vs-bar)
- **bay** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bake-vs-bay)
- **ban** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bake-vs-ban)
- **bye** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bake-vs-bye)
- **bat** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bake-vs-bat)
- **bee** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bake-vs-bee)
- **bam** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bake-vs-bam)
- **Bas** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bake-vs-bas)
- **bal** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bake-vs-bal)
- **bao** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bake-vs-bao)
- **BCE** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bake-vs-bce)
- **bok** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bake-vs-bok)
- **Boe** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bake-vs-boe)
- **baz** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bake-vs-baz)
- **bap** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bake-vs-bap)
- **BLE** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bake-vs-ble)
- **Bau** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bake-vs-bau)
- **bank** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bake-vs-bank)
- **blue** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bake-vs-blue)

## Common misspellings (4)
`abke`, `bakke`, `bbake`, `bkae`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/bake