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lake

/leɪk/
nounverb

The Lake Scrabble score is 8 points; LAKE also means a large inland body of water and rearranges to LEAK or KALE.

NWL Collins ENABLE

Noun 4 meanings

  1. A large, landlocked stretch of water or similar liquid.

  2. A large amount of liquid.

    “a lake of wine”

  3. In dyeing and painting, an often fugitive crimson or vermilion pigment derived from an organic colorant (cochineal or madder, for example) and an inorganic, generally metallic mordant.

  4. In the composition of colors for use in products intended for human consumption, made by extending on a substratum of alumina, a salt prepared from one of the certified water-soluble straight colors.

    “The name of a lake prepared by extending the aluminum salt prepared from FD&C Blue No. 1 upon the substratum would be FD&C Blue No. 1--Aluminum Lake.”

Verb 2 meanings

  1. To subject biological cells to repeated cycles of freezing and thawing until lysis.

  2. To make lake-red.

Definitions: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA) via Kaikki/Wiktextract

Where it comes from

Etymology

Arose from a conflation of * Middle English lake (“small stream of running water, pool, lake”), from Old English lacu (“stream, pool, pond, lake”), from Proto-West Germanic *laku, from Proto-Germanic *lakō (“stream, pool, body of water", originally "a place where water runs off and collects”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leg- (“to leak, drain”); with * Middle English lac (“lake”), from Old French lac (“lake, ditch, pit”), a borrowed term, likely from Latin lacus (“lake, tub, vat”) (see Old French lac for more).

Similar and opposite words

Similar
mountainlochlac

LAKE is a familiar four-letter noun, not just a playable rack: its main meaning is a large, landlocked stretch of water. The same letters form LEAK and KALE, while the K contributes most of the word’s 8-point base score. That combination makes LAKE easy to recognize but still worth checking for a scoring placement, especially when a premium square can multiply K.

LAKE at a glance

  • LAKE is a four-letter word accepted by Collins, NWL2023 and ENABLE.
  • Its base Scrabble value is 8 points: L, A and E are worth 1 each; K is worth 5.
  • LEAK and KALE are the two anagrams made from all four letters.
  • Twenty-four one-letter neighbours include LIKE, MAKE, TAKE, LATE and WAKE.
  • LAKE rhymes with 12 words, including MAKE, CAKE, SHAKE and SNAKE.

What does LAKE mean, and is it valid?

LAKE is valid in Collins, NWL2023 and ENABLE. Its ordinary meaning is a large, landlocked stretch of water; it can also mean a large amount of liquid. The dictionary entry includes a specialized dyeing term for a crimson or vermilion pigment, but the water sense is the one most readers will meet.

At four letters, LAKE sits among 5,577 four-letter entries. It begins with L, a starting letter shared by 279 words of that length, and ends in E, an ending represented by 700. That imbalance makes the final E less distinctive as a clue than the opening L.

What is the LAKE Scrabble score, and how can you raise it?

LAKE’s rack value is fixed at 8: L, A and E are worth 1 point apiece, and K is worth 5. The K accounts for 5 of the 8 base points, so placing it on a letter premium is the clearest scoring lever. A word premium then multiplies the total under standard Scrabble rules.

Keep an eye on the familiar -AKE family: MAKE, TAKE, WAKE, FAKE, CAKE, SAKE, SHAKE, SNAKE and STAKE rhyme with LAKE. For a rack rearrangement, try LEAK or KALE first; each uses all four tiles, unlike swapping one letter to make neighbours such as LIKE, LATE or LACE. Some close neighbours are unusual, so check your game’s word list before relying on one.

Rhymes with lake

All rhymes

One letter away

Change one letter, keep the rest

Questions people ask

How many points is LAKE worth in Scrabble?
LAKE scores 8 points in standard Scrabble before board premiums. L, A and E are each worth 1, while K is worth 5, so K supplies most of the tile value. A letter premium under K is the direct way to increase the score.
What words can you make from the letters in LAKE?
LEAK and KALE are the two anagrams of LAKE. Each rearranges all four letters without adding or removing a tile. Both are familiar words, making them straightforward alternatives when you need to rearrange the same rack.
How many one-letter neighbours does LAKE have?
LAKE has 24 one-letter neighbours: words formed by changing one letter while keeping the other three in place. LIKE, MAKE, TAKE, LATE and WAKE are examples. Some of the other entries are less familiar, so confirm them in your game’s word list.

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