stake
/steɪk/noun, verb
stake is spelled S-T-A-K-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 14 times per million words in written English, the 5,595th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “stake vs steak” about 320 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, stake means “A piece of wood or other material, usually long and slender, pointed at one end so as to be easily driven into the ground as a marker or a support or…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of stake is stakes.
How many letters and syllables are in stake?
| Letters | 5: S-T-A-K-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 14 times per million words; the 5,595th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| 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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is stake?
Stake appears 14 times per million words in written English, the 5,595th 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 stake?
- /steɪk/
Stake 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-stake.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with stake
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: steak (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with stake?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as stake.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: steak, skate.
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 stake
- stakes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- staking participle, present
- staked participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does stake mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A piece of wood or other material, usually long and slender, pointed at one end so as to be easily driven into the ground as a marker or a support or stay.
We have surveyor's stakes at all four corners of this field, to mark exactly its borders.
- 2
A piece of wood driven in the ground, placed in the middle of the court, that is used as the finishing point after scoring 12 hoops in croquet.
- 3
A stick or similar object (e.g., steel channel or angle stock) inserted upright in a lop, eye, or mortise, at the side or end of a cart, flat car, flatbed trailer, or the like, to prevent goods from falling off; often connected in a grid forming a stakebody.
- 4
The piece of timber to which a person condemned to death was affixed to be burned.
Thomas Cranmer was burnt at the stake.
- 5
A share or interest in a business or a given situation.
The owners let the managers eventually earn a stake in the business.
- 6
That which is laid down as a wager; that which is staked or hazarded; a pledge.
- 7
A small anvil usually furnished with a tang to enter a hole in a bench top, as used by tinsmiths, blacksmiths, etc., for light work, punching hole in or cutting a work piece, or for specific forming techniques etc.
- 8
A territorial division comprising all the Mormons (typically several thousand) in a geographical area.
verb
- 1
To fasten, support, defend, or delineate with stakes.
to stake vines or plants
- 2
To pierce or wound with a stake.
- 3
To put at risk upon success in competition, or upon a future contingency.
- 4
To provide (another) with money in order to engage in an activity as betting or a business venture.
John went broke, so to keep him playing, Jill had to stake him.
- 5
To deposit and risk a considerable amount of cryptocurrency in order to participate in the proof of stake process of verification.
- 6
obsoleteTo stretch leather skin over a piece of iron held knee-height, in preparation to use the skin in the creation of gloves.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Stake in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | pieu, pal, tuteur, jalon, piquet |
| German | Pfahl, Pflock , Marterpfahl, Scheiterhaufen , Anteil , Einsatz |
| Portuguese | estaca , fogueira , participação , estacar |
| Spanish | estaca , hoguera , participación, interés, implicación, inversión |
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 stake come from?
From Middle English stake, from Old English staca (“pin, tack, stake”), from Proto-West Germanic *stakō, from Proto-Germanic *stakô (“stake”), from Proto-Indo-European *stog-, *steg- (“stake”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).