lake
/leɪk/
"lake" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“lake” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #1,564. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #1,564
- frequency rank, English
- 16,425
- “L” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A large, landlocked stretch of water or similar liquid.
Corpus desk
Index EN-lake · lake · English
lake · rank #1,564 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #1,564
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 16,425
- PHOTO-FINISH fresh
Nearest frequency peer: fresh (-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 “lake”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- forced
forced
98,440 corpus weight
- fourth
fourth
98,439 corpus weight
- fresh
fresh
98,438 corpus weight
- lake
lake
98,437 corpus weight
- mental
mental
98,436 corpus weight
- mentioned
mentioned
98,435 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “lake” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | lake |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /leɪk/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #1,564 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “lake” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around lake (IPA /leɪk/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #1,564 among 16,425 “L” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for lake, with forms such as "alke", "laek", and "lakke". 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, "le", "law", "lie", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Arose from a conflation of * Middle English lake (“small stream of running water, pool, lake”), from Old English lacu (“stream, pool, pond, lake”), from Proto-West Germanic *laku, from Proto-Germanic *lakō (“stream, pool, body of water", originally "a place… The correct English form is lake, spelled L-A-K-E.
Definition
- 1A large, landlocked stretch of water or similar liquid.
- 2A large amount of liquid.
- 3A small stream of running water; a channel for water; a drain.
- 4A pit, or ditch.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how lake appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days' cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.
These included other Niphargus species from deep cave lakes and coastal anchihaline caves [23 ] and Gammarus and Echinogammarus amphipods that live only in permanently watered streams [21 ,24 ].
Etymology
Arose from a conflation of * Middle English lake (“small stream of running water, pool, lake”), from Old English lacu (“stream, pool, pond, lake”), from Proto-West Germanic *laku, from Proto-Germanic *lakō (“stream, pool, body of water", originally "a place where water runs off and collects”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leg- (“to leak, drain”); with * Middle English lac (“lake”), from Old French lac (“lake, ditch, pit”), a borrowed term, likely from Latin lacus (“lake, tub, vat”) (see Old French lac for more). The first element is related to Dutch laak (“stream, drainage ditch, pond”), German Low German Lake, Laak (“drainage, marshland”), German Lache (“puddle, pool”), Norwegian løk (“a deep, slow-moving stream; a widening in a stream or river”), Faroese løkur (“small brook”) and lækja (“water hole, well, watershoot in a brook”), Icelandic lækur (“stream”). Despite their similarity in form and meaning, Old English lacu is not related to English lay (“lake”), Latin lacus (“hollow, lake, pond”), Scottish Gaelic loch (“lake”), Ancient Greek λάκκος (lákkos, “waterhole, tank, pond, pit”), all from Proto-Indo-European *lókus, *l̥kwés (“lake, pool”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- alke
- laek
- lakke
- lkae
- llake
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of lake - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "lake"?
What does "lake" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "lake"?
How do you pronounce "lake"?
What is the origin of the word "lake"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "lake", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).
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.