shake
/ˈʃeɪk/
"shake" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“shake” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #4,121 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #4,121
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To cause (something) to move rapidly in opposite directions alternatingly.
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 | shake |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈʃeɪk/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #4,121 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “shake” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for shake is 5 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈʃeɪk/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,121 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 11 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for shake, with forms such as "hsake", "sahke", and "shaek". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "she", "shoe", "shaw", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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”). Cognate with Scots schake,… The correct English form is shake, spelled S-H-A-K-E.
Definition
- 1To cause (something) to move rapidly in opposite directions alternatingly.
- 2To move (one's head) from side to side, especially to indicate refusal, reluctance, or disapproval.
- 3To move or remove by agitating; to throw off by a jolting or vibrating motion.
- 4To disturb emotionally; to shock.
- 5To lose, evade, or get rid of (something).
- 6To move from side to side.
- 7To shake hands.
- 8To dance.
- 9To give a tremulous tone to; to trill.
- 10To threaten to overthrow.
- 11To be agitated; to lose firmness.
Etymology
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”). Cognate with Scots schake, schack (“to shake”), West Frisian schaekje (“to shake”), Dutch schaken (“to elope, make clean, shake”), Low German schaken (“to move, shift, push, shake”) and schacken (“to shake, shock”), Old Norse skaka (“to shake”), Norwegian Nynorsk skaka (“to shake”), Swedish skaka (“to shake”), Danish skage (“to shake”), Dutch schokken (“to shake, shock”), Russian скака́ть (skakátʹ, “to jump”). More at shock.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hsake,sahke,shaek,shakke,shhake,shkae,sshake
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of shake - 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
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Using “shake”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-H-A-K-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈʃeɪk/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “she” - see the side-by-side comparison. shake vs she
- 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.