quake
/kweɪk/
"quake" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“quake” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #16,100. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #16,100
- frequency rank, English
- 288
- “Q” headwords
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A trembling or shaking.
Corpus desk
Index EN-quake · quake · English
quake · rank #16,100 · 6 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #16,100
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 6 variants
- BOOK-MID 288
- PHOTO-FINISH psi
Nearest frequency peer: psi (-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 “quake”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- prompting
prompting
83,904 corpus weight
- prosper
prosper
83,903 corpus weight
- psi
psi
83,902 corpus weight
- quake
quake
83,901 corpus weight
- qualitative
qualitative
83,900 corpus weight
- racer
racer
83,898 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “quake” 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 | quake |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kweɪk/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #16,100 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “quake” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 6 spelling variants around quake (IPA /kweɪk/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #16,100 among 288 “Q” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for quake, with forms such as "qauke", "qquake", and "quaek". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "que", "quay", "qual", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English quaken, from Old English cwacian (“to quake, tremble, chatter”), from Proto-Germanic *kwakōną (“to shake, quiver, tremble”), itself likely of imitative origin. Related to Old English cweċċan (“to shake, swing, move, vibrate, shake off, g… The correct English form is quake, spelled Q-U-A-K-E.
Definition
- 1A trembling or shaking.
- 2An earthquake, a trembling of the ground with force.
- 3Something devastating, like a strong earthquake.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how quake appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
We felt a quake in the apartment every time the train went by.
California is plagued by quakes; there are a few minor ones almost every month.
Etymology
From Middle English quaken, from Old English cwacian (“to quake, tremble, chatter”), from Proto-Germanic *kwakōną (“to shake, quiver, tremble”), itself likely of imitative origin. Related to Old English cweċċan (“to shake, swing, move, vibrate, shake off, give up”) (see quitch), Dutch kwakkelen (“to ail, be ailing”), German Quackelei (“chattering”), Danish kvakle (“to bungle”), Latin vexō (“toss, shake violently, jostle, vex”), Irish bogadh (“a move, movement, shift, change”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- qauke
- qquake
- quaek
- quakke
- qukae
- uqake
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of quake - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "quake"?
What does "quake" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "quake"?
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "quake", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "quake". Here's where to go from here.
- "quake" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "que". View pair
- 6 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #16,100 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "Q" letter cohort. Q–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.