Which to use
“saké” and “spike” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #43,653
- “saké” frequency rank
- #21,474
- “spike” frequency rank
- 65127
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | saké | spike |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Vin de riz japonais, produit par fermentation comme la bière, titrant de 14° à 17°. | Potentiel de pointe, potentiel d'action. |
Where the eye mixes saké and spike
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. saké runs 4 letters (CVCV) against spike's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses saké with spike
A purely visual mix-up. saké (\sa.ke\) and spike (\spajk\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65127, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
saké is recorded at frequency rank #43,653, classified as anoun, pronounced \sa.ke\. spike is at rank #21,474, tagged as anoun, pronounced \spajk\.
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 65127, this pair ranks #73,729 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of saké vs spike
Shared letters: ks. Private to "saké": aé. Private to "spike": eip.
"saké" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "spike" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- spike ← psike · sipke · spiek · spikke · spkie · sppike · sspike
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "saké" for "spike" ever safe?
Which is more common, "saké" or "spike"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "saké" and "spike" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "saké" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "spike" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #73,729 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "saké" and "spike" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "saké vs stase". 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 #73,729 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.