rake
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "rake", 4-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "rake" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "rake" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
rake is aEnglishnoun. It means: A garden tool with a row of pointed teeth fixed to a long handle, used for collecting debris, grass, etc., for flattening the ground, or for loosening soil; also, a similar wheel-mounted tool drawn... Pronounced /ɹeɪk/. Often confused with re and ran.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | rake |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɹeɪk/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #17,699 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for rake is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɹeɪk/. Corpus data places it at rank #17,699 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 5 documented wrong-spelling variants for rake, with forms such as "arke", "raek", and "rakke". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "re", "ran", "ray", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English rake [and other forms], from Old English raca, racu, ræce (“tool with a row of pointed teeth, rake”), from Proto-Germanic *rakō, *rekô (“tool with a row of pointed teeth, rake”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to straighten, right on… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is rake, spelled R-A-K-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A garden tool with a row of pointed teeth fixed to a long handle, used for collecting debris, grass, etc., for flattening the ground, or for loosening soil; also, a similar wheel-mounted tool drawn by a horse or a tractor.
- 2A similarly shaped tool used for other purposes.
- 3A similarly shaped tool used for other purposes.
- 4A type of puffer train that leaves behind a stream of spaceships as it moves.
Etymology
From Middle English rake [and other forms], from Old English raca, racu, ræce (“tool with a row of pointed teeth, rake”), from Proto-Germanic *rakō, *rekô (“tool with a row of pointed teeth, rake”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to straighten, right oneself”). Cognates The English word is cognate with Danish rage (chiefly regional), Middle Dutch rāke, rēke (modern Dutch raak, reek (both regional), riek (“pitchfork, rake”)), Middle Low German rāke, racke (modern German Low German Raak (“rake; poker”)), Old High German rehho, rech (Middle High German reche, modern German Rechen (“rake”)), Old Norse reka (“shovel”) (modern Icelandic reka (“shovel”)), Old Saxon recho, Old Swedish raka (modern Swedish raka (“rake; (long) straight section of a road”)).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: arke,raek,rakke,rkae,rrake
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for rake
Misspelling Variants of "rake"
Frequency rank: #17,699 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter R in our English index: