sake
/ˈseɪk/
"sake" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sake” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #3,652 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #3,652
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Cause, interest or account.
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 | sake |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈseɪk/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #3,652 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sake” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for sake is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈseɪk/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,652 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for sake, with forms such as "aske", "saek", and "sakke". 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, "se", "SK", "she", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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 *s… The correct English form is sake, spelled S-A-K-E.
Definition
- 1Cause, interest or account.
- 2Purpose or end; reason.
- 3The benefit or regard of someone or something.
- 4Contention, strife; guilt, sin, accusation or charge.
Etymology
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”). Akin to West Frisian saak (“cause; business”), Low German Saak, Dutch zaak (“matter; cause; business”), German Sache (“thing; matter; cause; legal cause”), Danish sag, Swedish and Norwegian sak, Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌺𐌾𐍉 (sakjō, “dispute, argument”), Old English sōcn (“inquiry, prosecution”), Old English sēcan (“to seek”). More at soke, soken, seek.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: aske,saek,sakke,skae,ssake
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sake - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "sake"?
What does "sake" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "sake"?
How do you pronounce "sake"?
What is the origin of the word "sake"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “sake”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-A-K-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈseɪk/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “se” - see the side-by-side comparison. sake vs se
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.