waken
/ˈweɪkən/
"waken" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“waken” is uncommon English (frequency #67,947 among 1,759 “W” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #67,947
- frequency rank, English
- 1,759
- “W” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To wake or rouse from sleep.
Corpus desk
Index EN-waken · waken · English
waken · rank #67,947 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #67,947
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,759
- PHOTO-FINISH welled
Nearest frequency peer: welled (+3 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “waken”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- ventilate
ventilate
32,062 corpus weight
- Verner
Verner
32,061 corpus weight
- Vijayawada
Vijayawada
32,058 corpus weight
- waken
waken
32,054 corpus weight
- welled
welled
32,051 corpus weight
- whinging
whinging
32,047 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “waken” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | waken |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈweɪkən/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #67,947 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “waken” in English
Rare enough to double-check
waken is uncommon English at frequency #67,947 among 1,759 “W” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /ˈweɪkən/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for waken, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English waknen, from Old English wæcnan, from Proto-Germanic *waknaną. The correct English form is waken, spelled W-A-K-E-N.
Definition
- 1To wake or rouse from sleep.
- 2To awaken; to cease to sleep; to be awakened; to stir.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how waken appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Early, Turnus wakening with the light.
She wakened in sharp panic, bewildered by the grotesquerie of some half-remembered dream in contrast with the harshness of inclement fact, drowsily realizing that since she had fallen asleep it had come on to rain smartly out of a shrouded sky.
Etymology
From Middle English waknen, from Old English wæcnan, from Proto-Germanic *waknaną.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "waken", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).