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PlainSpell

sake

/ˈseɪ̯k/noun

sake is spelled S-A-K-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 25 times per million words in written English, the 3,612th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, sake means “Cause, interest or account” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of sake is sakes or sakés.

How many letters and syllables are in sake?

Letters4: S-A-K-E
Syllables1
In writing25 times per million words; the 3,612th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; 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 sake?

Sake appears 25 times per million words in written English, the 3,612th 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 sake?

  • /ˈseɪ̯k/
  • [ˈseɪ̯k]

Sake has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-sake.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Neøn-saké.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-saké.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with sake?

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

Spelled with the same letters in another order: kesa.

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 sake

  • sakes plural
  • sakés plural
  • saki

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

What does sake mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    Cause, interest or account.

    For the sake of argument

  2. 2

    Purpose or end; reason.

    for old times' sake

  3. 3

    The benefit or regard of someone or something.

  4. 4

    Contention, strife; guilt, sin, accusation or charge.

  5. 5

    Alternative spelling of saké.

noun

as saké
  1. 1

    Rice wine; a drink made from filtered fermented rice.

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

Sake in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
GermanSinn, Ziel (cause, interest or account), Vorteil (benefit), Sake (Japanese rice wine)
Portuguesecausa, interesse (cause, interest or account), bem (benefit), saqué (Japanese rice wine), razão, motivo (purpose or end; reason)
Spanishcausa, gracia (cause, interest or account), bien (benefit), sake (Japanese rice wine), razón, motivo (purpose or end; reason)
Frenchsaké (Japanese rice wine)

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 sake come from?

From Middle English sake (“sake, cause”), from Old English sacu (“cause, lawsuit, legal action, complaint, issue, dispute”), from Proto-West Germanic *saku, from Proto-Germanic *sakō (“affair, thing, charge, accusation, matter”), from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂g- (“to investigate”).

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

What to look up after sake