Which to use
“lake” and “like” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,242
- “lake” frequency rank
- #5,672
- “like” frequency rank
- 16914
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lake | like |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Lac. | Signal d’approbation d’une publication sur Facebook ou, par extension, sur un média social. |
Where the eye mixes lake and like
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses lake with like
A purely visual mix-up. lake (\ˈleɪk\) and like (\lajk\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - a in “lake” becomes i in “like”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16914, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lake is recorded at frequency rank #11,242, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈleɪk\. like is at rank #5,672, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lajk\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 16914, this pair ranks #385,667 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of lake vs like
Shared letters: ekl. Private to "lake": a. Private to "like": i.
"lake" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "like" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lake" for "like" ever safe?
Frequency check: "lake" vs "like" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "lake" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "like" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #385,667 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lake" and "like" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lago vs lake". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #385,667 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.