Which to use
“wait” and “wake” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,594
- “wait” frequency rank
- #17,674
- “wake” frequency rank
- 37268
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wait | wake |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | espera | o estado de acordar ou de estar acordado |
Where the eye mixes wait and wake
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: wait vs wake
A purely visual mix-up. wait (/weɪt/) and wake (/weɪk/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37268, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
wait is recorded at frequency rank #19,594, classified as anoun, pronounced /weɪt/. wake is at rank #17,674, tagged as anoun, pronounced /weɪk/.
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 37268, this pair ranks #29,386 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of wait vs wake
Shared letters: aw. Private to "wait": it. Private to "wake": ek.
"wait" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "wake" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "wait" and "wake" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "wait" or "wake" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "wait" and "wake" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "wait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "wake" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #29,386 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wait" and "wake" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wait vs watt". 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 #29,386 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.