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PlainSpell

snake

/sneɪk/noun, verb

snake is spelled S-N-A-K-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 17 times per million words in written English, the 4,838th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, snake means “Any of the suborder Serpentes of legless reptiles with long, thin bodies and fork-shaped tongues” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of snake is snakes.

How many letters and syllables are in snake?

Letters5: S-N-A-K-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing17 times per million words; the 4,838th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is snake?

Snake appears 17 times per million words in written English, the 4,838th 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 snake?

  • US /sneɪk/

Snake 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-snake.wav, En-us-snake.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Flame,_not_lame-Snake.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with snake?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as snake from its last stressed vowel (/eɪk/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: sneak.

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 snake

  • snakes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • snek
  • snaking participle, present
  • snaked participle, past

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

What does snake mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    Any of the suborder Serpentes of legless reptiles with long, thin bodies and fork-shaped tongues.

  2. 2

    A person who acts deceitfully for personal or social gain; a treacherous person.

    Near-synonyms: rat; see also Thesaurus:betrayer

  3. 3

    A tool for unclogging plumbing.

  4. 4

    A tool to aid cable pulling.

  5. 5

    AustraliaUKA flavoured jube (confectionary) in the shape of a snake.

  6. 6

    slangTrouser snake; the penis.

  7. 7

    A series of Bézier curves.

  8. 8

    The seventh Lenormand card.

verb

  1. 1

    To follow or move in a winding route.

    The path snaked through the forest.

  2. 2

    AustraliaslangTo steal slyly.

    He snaked my DVD!

  3. 3

    To clean using a plumbing snake.

  4. 4

    USinformalTo drag or draw, as a snake from a hole; often with out.

  5. 5

    To wind round spirally, as a large rope with a smaller, or with cord, the small rope lying in the spaces between the strands of the large one; to worm.

  6. 6

    To inform; to rat; often with out.

    He says he didn't snake and I believe him.

  7. 7

    slangTo interfere with another's run or to take one's run out of turn.

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

Snake in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchserpent (legless reptile), furet (plumbing tool), serpenter (to move in a winding path)
GermanSchlange, Wurm (legless reptile), Abflussspirale (plumbing tool), Verräter, Betrüger, Windei (treacherous person)
Portuguesecobra, serpente, ofídio, víbora (legless reptile), serpentear (to move in a winding path)
Spanishserpiente, culebra, sierpe, víbora (legless reptile), culebrear, viborear (to move in a winding path)

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 snake come from?

From Middle English snake, from Old English snaca (“snake, serpent, reptile”), from Proto-West Germanic *snakō (“slider, snake”), from *snakan (“to creep, slide”), related to Old High German snahhan (“to sneak, slide”). Compare also Proto-Germanic *snēkô (“creeper, crawler”).

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

What to look up after snake