flake
/fleɪk/
"flake" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“flake” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #22,087 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #22,087
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A loose filmy mass or a thin chiplike layer of anything
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 | flake |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /fleɪk/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #22,087 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “flake” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for flake is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /fleɪk/. Corpus data places it at rank #22,087 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for flake, with forms such as "falke", "fflake", and "flaek". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "flat", "flee", "flaw", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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, bro… The correct English form is flake, spelled F-L-A-K-E.
Definition
- 1A loose filmy mass or a thin chiplike layer of anything
- 2A scale of a fish or similar animal
- 3A prehistoric tool chipped out of stone.
- 4A person who is impractical, flighty, unreliable, or inconsistent; especially with maintaining a living.
- 5A carnation with only two colours in the flower, the petals having large stripes.
- 6A flat turn or tier of rope.
- 7A corrupt arrest, e.g. to extort money for release or merely to fulfil a quota.
- 8A wire rack for drying fish.
Etymology
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.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: falke,fflake,flaek,flakke,flkae,fllake,lfake
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of flake - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “flake”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-L-A-K-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /fleɪk/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “flat” - see the side-by-side comparison. flake vs flat
- 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.