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PlainSpell

oak

/oʊk/noun, adjective, verb

oak is spelled O-A-K: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 15 times per million words in written English, the 5,309th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, oak means “A deciduous tree with distinctive deeply lobed leaves, acorns, and notably strong wood, typically of England and northeastern North America, included…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of oak is oaks.

How many letters and syllables are in oak?

Letters3: O-A-K
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing15 times per million words; the 5,309th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone 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 oak?

Oak appears 15 times per million words in written English, the 5,309th 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 oak?

  • UK /əʊk/
  • US /oʊk/
  • /woʊk/

Oak 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-us-oak.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with oak

Also written: oke.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with oak?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as oak from its last stressed vowel (/oʊk/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: oka, koa.

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 oak

  • oaks plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • oaking participle, present
  • oaked participle, past

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

What does oak mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A deciduous tree with distinctive deeply lobed leaves, acorns, and notably strong wood, typically of England and northeastern North America, included in genus Quercus.

  2. 2

    The wood of the oak.

  3. 3

    A rich brown color, like that of oak wood.

  4. 4

    The flavor of oak.

  5. 5

    Any member of species of the genus Quercus, in family Fagaceae.

  6. 6

    she-oaks in Allocasuarina and Casuarina, of family Casuarinaceae

  7. 7

    white oaks Lagunaria, in family Malvaceae

  8. 8

    silky oaks, in family Proteaceae

adjective

  1. 1

    Having a rich brown color, like that of oak wood.

  2. 2

    Made of oak wood or timber.

    an oak table, oak beam, etc.

verb

  1. 1

    To expose to oak in order for the oak to impart its flavors.

prepositional phrase

as OAK
  1. 1

    Initialism of of a kind.

    In poker, 3 OAK beats two pair.

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

Oak in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchchêne (tree or shrub of the genus Quercus), chênes (made of oak wood)
GermanEiche, Eichenbaum, Eichbaum (tree or shrub of the genus Quercus), Eichen- (made of oak wood), Eichenholz (wood)
Portuguesecarvalho (tree or shrub of the genus Quercus)
Spanishroble, encina, carrasca, talaya (tree or shrub of the genus Quercus)

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 oak come from?

Inherited from Middle English ake, hok, oek, ok, oke, from Old English aac, āc, ǣċ, from Proto-West Germanic *aik, from Proto-Germanic *aiks (“oak”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyǵ- (“oak”).

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

What to look up after oak