steak
/steɪk/noun, verb
steak is spelled S-T-E-A-K: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 9.3 times per million words in written English, the 7,445th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “stake vs steak” about 320 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, steak means “Beefsteak: a slice of beef, broiled or cut for broiling” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of steak is steaks.
How many letters and syllables are in steak?
| Letters | 5: S-T-E-A-K |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 9.3 times per million words; the 7,445th 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 steak?
Steak appears 9.3 times per million words in written English, the 7,445th 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 steak?
- /steɪk/
- /stɛːk/
Steak 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-steak.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with steak
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: stake (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 steak?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as steak.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: stake, 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 steak
- steaks plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- steaking participle, present
- steaked participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does steak mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Beefsteak: a slice of beef, broiled or cut for broiling.
- 2
A relatively large, thick slice or slab cut from another animal, a vegetable, etc.
venison steak, pork steak, salmon steak; cauliflower steak, eggplant steaks
- 3
A slice of meat cut across the grain (perpendicular to the spine) from a fish.
verb
- 1
To cook (something, especially fish) like or as a steak.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Steak in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | bifteck, steak |
| German | Steak, Beefsteak, Lendenschnitte, Schnitte |
| Portuguese | bife , filé |
| Spanish | bistec, bisté, filete |
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 steak come from?
From Middle English steike, from Old Norse steik (“roast; meat roasted on a stick”). The verb is either from the noun or from steikja (“to roast”). The modern pronunciation shows an irregular change of Early Modern English /ɛː/ to /eɪ/ in the standard language; contrast this with the development of other words such as speak and wreak.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).