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” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #2,822. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#2,822
frequency rank, English
43,570
“C” headwords
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.

Corpus desk

Index EN-cake · cake · English

cake · rank #2,822 · 5 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #2,822
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 5 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 43,570
  • PHOTO-FINISH burn

Nearest frequency peer: burn (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Frequency neighbourhood for “cake”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “cake” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of May 6, 2026

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.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 5 spelling variants around cake (IPA /keɪk/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #2,822 among 43,570 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 10 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

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.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how cake appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. On Monday afternoon, Ronya attends a birthday party and eats cake whenever cake is presented to her.
  2. an oatmeal cake

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.

PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.

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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "cake", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

burn#2,821bike#2,819ages#2,816fees#2,831

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).

haha5 variantssing5 variantsquit5 variantsloud5 variants
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