lake
/leɪk/noun, verb
lake is spelled L-A-K-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 68 times per million words in written English, the 1,562nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, lake means “A large, landlocked stretch of water or similar liquid” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of lake is lakes.
How many letters and syllables are in lake?
| Letters | 4: L-A-K-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 68 times per million words; the 1,562nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; 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 lake?
Lake appears 68 times per million words in written English, the 1,562nd 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 lake?
- US /leɪk/
- Australia /læɪk/
- /lek/
Lake has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-lake.ogg, En-us-lake.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with lake?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as lake from its last stressed vowel (/eɪk/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: leak, kale.
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 lake
- lakes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- laik
- laking participle, present
- laked participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does lake mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A large, landlocked stretch of water or similar liquid.
- 2
A large amount of liquid.
a lake of wine
- 3
A small stream of running water; a channel for water; a drain.
- 4
obsoleteA pit, or ditch.
- 5
obsoleteAn offering, sacrifice, gift.
- 6
Play; sport; game; fun; glee.
- 7
In dyeing and painting, an often fugitive crimson or vermilion pigment derived from an organic colorant (cochineal or madder, for example) and an inorganic, generally metallic mordant.
- 8
In the composition of colors for use in products intended for human consumption, made by extending on a substratum of alumina, a salt prepared from one of the certified water-soluble straight colors.
The name of a lake prepared by extending the aluminum salt prepared from FD&C Blue No. 1 upon the substratum would be FD&C Blue No. 1--Aluminum Lake.
- 9
obsoleteA kind of fine, white linen.
verb
- 1
obsoleteTo present an offering.
- 2
UKTo leap, jump, exert oneself; to play.
- 3
To subject biological cells to repeated cycles of freezing and thawing until lysis.
- 4
To make lake-red.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Lake in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
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.