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PlainSpell

make

/meɪk/verb, noun

make is spelled M-A-K-E. The wrong spelling people search most is amke: about 130 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 61 of all searches for the word. Make is a verb meaning “To build, construct, produce, or originate”.

How many letters and syllables are in make?

Letters4: M-A-K-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing1,202 times per million words; the 90th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched3; the most searched, amke, about 130 Bing searches a month (all of them)
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How do you spell make?

Make is spelled M-A-K-E. 3 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 42 of the searches for make in either form.

makethe right spelling7,830 searches a month
amkem and a swapped130 searches a month
mkaea and k swapped50 searches a month
mkeaa missing a, an extra a10 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is make?

Make appears 1,202 times per million words in written English, the 90th 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 make?

  • /meɪk/
  • [meɪkʲ]
  • Canada [meːk]

Make 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-to_make.ogg, En-us-make.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with make

Also written: mak.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with make?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as make.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: kame.

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 make

  • makes present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • making participle, present
  • made participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • makee
  • meck

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

What does make mean?

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

verb

  1. 1

    To build, construct, produce, or originate.

    We made a bird feeder for our yard.

  2. 2

    To write or compose.

    I made a poem for her wedding.

  3. 3

    To bring about; to effect or produce by means of some action.

    make war

  4. 4

    To create (the universe), especially (in Christianity) from nothing.

    God made earth and heaven.

  5. 5

    To prepare (food); to cook (food).

    I'm making cereal for breakfast. Who wants some?

  6. 6

    colloquialTo behave, to act.

    To make like a deer caught in the headlights.

  7. 7

    To tend; to contribute; to have effect; with for or against.

  8. 8

    To constitute.

    They make a cute couple.

noun

  1. 1

    Brand; marque; manufacturer; maker.

    Near-synonyms: kind, type

  2. 2

    Manner or style of construction (style of how a thing is made).

    Near-synonyms: makeup, form, conformation, composition; form factor

  3. 3

    Origin (of a manufactured article); manufacture; production.

    The camera was of German make.

  4. 4

    A person's character or disposition.

  5. 5

    datedThe act or process of making something, especially in industrial manufacturing.

  6. 6

    Quantity produced, especially of materials.

  7. 7

    A software utility for automatically building large applications, or an implementation of this utility.

  8. 8

    slangIdentification: recognition (of identity), especially from police records or evidence.

  9. 9

    slangPast, present, or future target of seduction (usually female).

  10. 10

    UKMate; a spouse or companion; a match.

    Every cake hath its make; but a scrape cake hath two.

  11. 11

    IrelandScotlandarchaicA halfpenny.

    Only as he climbed the steps did he mind that he hadn't even a meck upon him, and turned to jump off as the tram with a showd swung grinding down to the Harbour […]

  12. 12

    obsoleteAn agricultural tool resembling a scythe, used to cut (harvest) certain plants such as peas, reeds, or tares.

    Harvest. Taken up by a pease-make, and left in small heaps, and turned as often as the weather may make it necessary.

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

How do you abbreviate make?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of make: m.

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

Make in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchfaire (to construct), créer (to create), rendre (to cause to be), gagner (to earn, to gain (money)), marque (brand)
Germanmachen, bauen (to construct), Fabrikat, Marke (brand), produzieren (to produce)
Portuguesefazer, construir (to construct), marca (brand), interpretar (to interpret)
Spanishhacer, artificiar, obrar, construir, edificar, formar (to construct)

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 make come from?

From Middle English macen, machiæ, macian, macke, mak, make, maken, makiȝe, from Old English macian (“to build, make, work”), from Proto-West Germanic *makōn (“to build, make, work”), from *mak (“agreeable, comfortable, fit, suitable”), from Proto-Germanic *makaz (“agreeable, comfortable, fit, suitable”), from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂ǵ-, *meh₂ḱ- (“to knead”) or *meg- (“to be comfortable, pleasant”). Related to match.

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

What to look up after make