Cake Meaning
/keɪk/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA rich, sweet dessert food, typically made of flour, sugar, and eggs and baked in an oven, and often covered in icing.
nounA small mass of baked dough, especially a thin loaf from unleavened dough.
Sentence Examples
Can you imagine me making a cake?
Your cake is delicious.
Butter and line a 25 cm cake tin.
CEFR Practice Quiz
For her birthday, we baked a delicious chocolate ____ with vanilla icing.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She baked a delicious chocolate ____ for her father's birthday party.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *kakǭ Old Norse kakabor. Middle English cake English cake From Middle English cake, from Old Norse kaka (“cake”) (compare Norwegian kake, Icelandic/Swedish kaka, Danish kage), from Proto-Germanic *kakǭ, of disputed origin. Likely a distant cognate with kaak. Perhaps related to cookie, kuchen, and quiche. Doublet of coca (pastry).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"On Monday afternoon, Ronya attends a birthday party and eats cake whenever cake is presented to her."
— 2025 June 13, Rhys Southan, Helena Ward, Jen Semler, “A timing problem for instrumental convergence”, in Philosophical Studies, Springer Science+Business Media, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC:
"Cakes of rustling ice come rolling down the flood."
— 1697, Virgil, “The First Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
"Now that I escape, sleepwalk awake / Those who could relate know the world ain't cake"
— 1996, “Ready or Not”, in The Score, performed by Fugees:
""The Lord Mayor can say tart things," said Hobler to a scavenger. "Yes," replied the dustman, "he does say things that are tart, which is not to be wondered at when we know him to be a regular cake.""
— 1834, Figaro in London, volume 3, page 195:
"You will remember that Stranger Things was initially conceived as a one-off, and its success forced the Duffer Brothers to cake on endless new lore to keep the engine running."
— 2025 December 26, Stuart Heritage, “Stranger Things season five vol 2 review – the fact that this isn’t unbearable is a miracle”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
Explore More A1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
For her birthday, we baked a delicious chocolate ____ with vanilla icing.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She baked a delicious chocolate ____ for her father's birthday party.