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PlainSpell

flake

UK /fleɪk/noun, verb

flake is spelled F-L-A-K-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.6 times per million words in written English, the 22,073rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, flake means “A loose filmy mass or a thin chiplike layer of anything” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of flake is flakes.

How many letters and syllables are in flake?

Letters5: F-L-A-K-E
Syllables1
In writing1.6 times per million words; the 22,073rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is flake?

Flake appears 1.6 times per million words in written English, the 22,073rd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce flake?

  • UK /fleɪk/

Flake has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-flake.ogg, EN-AU_ck1_flake.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-flake.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with flake

Also written: fake.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with flake?

2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as flake from its last stressed vowel (/eɪk/, British pronunciation):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of flake

  • flakes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • flaking participle, present
  • flaked participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does flake mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A loose filmy mass or a thin chiplike layer of anything

    There were a few flakes of paint on the floor from when we were painting the walls.

  2. 2

    A scale of a fish or similar animal

  3. 3

    A prehistoric tool chipped out of stone.

  4. 4

    informalA person who is impractical, flighty, unreliable, or inconsistent; especially with maintaining a living.

    She makes pleasant conversation, but she's kind of a flake when it comes time for action.

  5. 5

    A carnation with only two colours in the flower, the petals having large stripes.

  6. 6

    A flat turn or tier of rope.

  7. 7

    USslangA corrupt arrest, e.g. to extort money for release or merely to fulfil a quota.

  8. 8

    A wire rack for drying fish.

  9. 9

    UKDogfish.

  10. 10

    AustraliaThe meat of the gummy shark.

  11. 11

    UKA paling; a hurdle.

  12. 12

    A platform of hurdles, or small sticks made fast or interwoven, supported by stanchions, for drying codfish and other things.

  13. 13

    A small stage hung over a vessel's side, for workmen to stand on while calking, etc.

  14. 14

    Alternative form of fake (“turn or coil of cable or hawser”).

verb

  1. 1

    To break or chip off in a flake.

    The paint flaked off after only a year.

  2. 2

    colloquialTo prove unreliable or impractical; to abandon or desert, to fail to follow through.

    He said he'd come and help, but he flaked.

  3. 3

    To store an item such as rope or sail in layers

    The line is flaked into the container for easy attachment and deployment.

  4. 4

    IrelandslangTo hit (another person).

  5. 5

    USslangTo plant evidence to facilitate a corrupt arrest.

  6. 6

    To lay out on a flake for drying.

    flake a fish

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Flake in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchéclat, fragment, flocon (thin chiplike layer), planche pourrie (an unreliable person), peler, s'écailler (to break or chip)
GermanFlocke (thin chiplike layer), Schussel, Schnarchnase, Drückeberger, Chaot (an unreliable person)
Portuguesefloco (thin chiplike layer), furão (an unreliable person), furar (To prove unreliable or impractical; to abandon…)
Spanishescama, hojuela, copa, copo, ampo (thin chiplike layer), lasca (archaeology: thin stone tool)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does flake come from?

From Middle English flake (“a flake of snow”), from Old English flacca and/or Old Norse flak (“loose or torn piece”) (compare Old Norse flakna (“to flake or chip”)), from Proto-Germanic *flaką (“something flat”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“flat, broad, plain”). Cognate with Norwegian flak (“slice, sliver”, literally “piece torn off”), Swedish flak (“a thin slice”), Danish flage (“flake”), German Flocke (“flake”), Dutch vlak (“smooth surface, plain”) and vlok (“flake”), as well as with Latin plaga (“flat surface, district, region”) and Welsh llech (“slate, tablet”). Doublet of plage.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after flake