shake
/ˈʃeɪk/verb, noun
shake is spelled S-H-A-K-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 21 times per million words in written English, the 4,076th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, shake means “To cause (something) to move rapidly in opposite directions alternatingly” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in shake?
| Letters | 5: S-H-A-K-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 21 times per million words; the 4,076th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Sounds like |
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).
How common is shake?
Shake appears 21 times per million words in written English, the 4,076th 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 shake?
- /ˈʃeɪk/
Shake 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-shake.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with shake
Sounds like: sheikh (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of shake
- shakes present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- shaking participle, present
- shook past
- shaked past, rare
- shooketh past
- shaken participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does shake mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To cause (something) to move rapidly in opposite directions alternatingly.
The earthquake shook the building.
- 2
To move (one's head) from side to side, especially to indicate refusal, reluctance, or disapproval.
Shaking his head, he kept repeating “No, no, no”.
- 3
To move or remove by agitating; to throw off by a jolting or vibrating motion.
to shake fruit down from a tree
- 4
To disturb emotionally; to shock.
Her father’s death shook her terribly.
- 5
To lose, evade, or get rid of (something).
I can’t shake the feeling that I forgot something.
- 6
To move from side to side.
She shook with grief.
- 7
To shake hands.
OK, let’s shake on it.
- 8
To dance.
She was shaking it on the dance floor.
noun
- 1
The act of shaking or being shaken; tremulous or back-and-forth motion.
The cat gave the mouse a shake.
- 2
A twitch, a spasm, a tremor.
- 3
A dance popular in the 1960s in which the head, limbs, and body are shaken.
- 4
A milkshake.
- 5
A beverage made by adding ice cream to a (usually carbonated) drink; a float.
- 6
Shake cannabis, small, leafy fragments of cannabis that gather at the bottom of a bag of marijuana.
- 7
USslangAn adulterant added to cocaine powder.
- 8
A crack or split between the growth rings in wood.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate shake?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of shake: SK.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Shake in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | secouer, agiter , se secouer , secousse, secouement, agitation |
| German | schütteln, erschüttern , Schütteln , händeschütteln , Milchshake , Schindel |
| Portuguese | sacudir, agitar , sacudir a cabeça, abanar , mexer com, abalar |
| Spanish | agitar, sacudir, jamaquear, samaquear, zamaquear, zarandear |
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 shake come from?
From Middle English schaken, from Old English sċeacan, sċacan (“to shake”), from Proto-West Germanic *skakan, from Proto-Germanic *skakaną (“to shake, swing, escape”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keg-, *(s)kek- (“to jump, move”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).