fake
/feɪ̯k/
"fake" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“fake” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,251 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #2,251
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Not real; false, fraudulent.
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 | fake |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /feɪ̯k/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #2,251 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “fake” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for fake is 4 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /feɪ̯k/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,251 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 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for fake, with forms such as "afke", "faek", and "fakke". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Fe", "far", "fan", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: The origin is not known with certainty, although first attested in 1775 C.E. in British criminals' slang. It is probably from feak, feague (“to give a better appearance through artificial means, spruce up, embellish”), itself from German Low German fegen, f… The correct English form is fake, spelled F-A-K-E.
Definition
- 1Not real; false, fraudulent.
- 2Insincere
Etymology
The origin is not known with certainty, although first attested in 1775 C.E. in British criminals' slang. It is probably from feak, feague (“to give a better appearance through artificial means, spruce up, embellish”), itself from German Low German fegen, from Middle Low German vēgen, from Old Saxon fegōn, from Proto-West Germanic *fegōn (“to clean up, polish”). Akin to Dutch veeg (“a swipe”), Dutch vegen (“to sweep, wipe”); German fegen (“to sweep, to polish”). Compare also Old English fācn (“deceit, fraud”). Perhaps related also to Old Norse fjúka (“to fade, vanquish, disappear”), Old Norse feikn (“strange, scary, unnatural”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: afke,faek,fakke,ffake,fkae
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of fake - 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 “fake”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-A-K-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /feɪ̯k/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Fe” - see the side-by-side comparison. fake vs Fe
- 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.