cake

/keɪk/

//keɪk// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"cake" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“cake” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,822 in English word frequency and used as a noun.

#2,822
frequency rank, English
4
letters
5
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A rich, sweet dessert food, typically made of flour, sugar, and eggs and baked in an oven, and often covered in icing.

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

cake vs CE
0% similar
cake vs can
50% similar
cake vs car
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for cake
PropertyValue
Headwordcake
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/keɪk/
Letters4
Frequency rank#2,822
Misspellings tracked5
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “cake” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). cake lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for cake is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /keɪk/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,822 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for cake, with forms such as "acke", "caek", and "cakke". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "CE", "can", "car", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *kakǭ Old Norse kakabor. Middle English cake English cake From Middle English cake, from Old Norse kaka (“cake”) (compare Norwegian kake, Icelandic/Swedish kaka, Danish kage), from Proto-Germanic *kakǭ, of disputed origin. Like… The correct English form is cake, spelled C-A-K-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    A rich, sweet dessert food, typically made of flour, sugar, and eggs and baked in an oven, and often covered in icing.
  2. 2
    A small mass of baked dough, especially a thin loaf from unleavened dough.
  3. 3
    A thin wafer-shaped mass of fried batter; a griddlecake or pancake.
  4. 4
    A block of any various dense materials.
  5. 5
    Ellipsis of piece of cake: a trivially easy task or responsibility.
  6. 6
    Money.
  7. 7
    Used to describe the doctrine of having one's cake and eating it too.
  8. 8
    A pair of buttocks, especially one that is exceptionally plump or full.
  9. 9
    A multishot fireworks assembly comprising several tubes, each with a fireworks effect, lit by a single fuse.
  10. 10
    A foolish person.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *kakǭ Old Norse kakabor. Middle English cake English cake From Middle English cake, from Old Norse kaka (“cake”) (compare Norwegian kake, Icelandic/Swedish kaka, Danish kage), from Proto-Germanic *kakǭ, of disputed origin. Likely a distant cognate with kaak. Perhaps related to cookie, kuchen, and quiche. Doublet of coca (pastry).

Synonyms

pastry

This word in other languages

bizcocho(Español)gâteau(Français)Kuchen(Deutsch)bolo(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: acke,caek,cakke,ccake,ckae

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cake - 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.

acke2caek2cakke1ccake1ckae2
Edit distance from "cake"

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

How do you spell "cake"?
"cake" is spelled C-A-K-E. The IPA pronunciation is /keɪk/.
What does "cake" mean?
As a noun, "cake" means: A rich, sweet dessert food, typically made of flour, sugar, and eggs and baked in an oven, and often covered in icing.
What words are commonly confused with "cake"?
"cake" is commonly confused with "CE", "can", "car". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "cake"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cake" is /keɪk/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "cake"?
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *kakǭ Old Norse kakabor. Middle English cake English cake From Middle English cake, from Old Norse kaka (“cake”) (compare Norwegian kake, Icelandic/Swedish kaka, Danish kage), from Proto-Germanic *kakǭ, of disputed or... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “cake”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is C-A-K-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as /keɪk/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Don't mix it up with “CE” - see the side-by-side comparison. cake vs CE
  • 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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list