lyke

noun

"lyke" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“lyke” is uncommon English (frequency #91,763 among 2,297 “L” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#91,763
frequency rank, English
2,297
“L” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Archaic spelling of like.

Corpus desk

Index EN-lyke · lyke · English

lyke · rank #91,763 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #91,763
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,297
  • PHOTO-FINISH Lumberton

Nearest frequency peer: Lumberton (-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.

Long-tail ranks near “lyke”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “lyke” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for lyke
PropertyValue
Headwordlyke
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters4
Frequency rank#91,763
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “lyke” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).lykefalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “Lumberton” (#91,762), “maddeningly” (#91,766), “madwoman” (#91,768). Among 2,297 “L” headwords, “lyke” is #91,763. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

lyke is uncommon English at frequency #91,763 among 2,297 “L” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for lyke in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is lyke, spelled L-Y-K-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Archaic spelling of like.
  2. 2
    Obsolete form of lich (“a corpse”).

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how lyke appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Lyke-Wake Dirge

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

How do you spell "lyke"?
"lyke" is spelled L-Y-K-E.
What does "lyke" mean?
As a noun, "lyke" means: Archaic spelling of like.
What language does "lyke" come from?
"lyke" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "lyke", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list