Commonly Confused Words Stake and Steak

The words stake and steak  are  homophones: they sound alike but have different meanings. Definitions As a noun, stake refers to a length of wood or metal that can serve as a pole or post. The noun stake may also mean a share or interest, or something (usually money) thats bet in a wager or contest. The verb stake means to gamble, establish a claim, mark a boundary, or provide support. The noun steak refers to a slice of meat or fish thats usually cooked by broiling or frying. Examples When the early settlers came to a piece of land they liked, they pounded a stake into the ground to claim it.When you buy a companys stock, youre buying an ownership stake in that company along with a claim on its assets and future profits.(James J. Kramer with Cliff Mason, Jim Cramers Getting Back to Even. Simon Schuster, 2009)John was a desperate gambler, willing to stake everything on a roll of the dice.The only time to eat diet food is while youre waiting for the steak to cook.(Julia Child)I sat down across a glass-topped table from him. He picked at a pallid salmon steak with a cafeteria fork and smiled serenely.(Robert Charles Wilson,  Spin. Tor, 2005)The two of us and her mouthy  teenaged son opened some presents, and then we went to this steak  house near her apartment.(Raymond Carver, Where Im Calling From. Cathedral. Knopf, 1983) Idiom Alerts At StakeThe expression at stake refers to something at risk—something that can be won or lost.By giving his version of the greatest of all wars, and his own role in it, [Winston Churchill] knew he was fighting for his ultimate place in history.  What was  at stake was  his status as a hero.(Paul Johnson, Churchill. Viking, 2009)Raise the StakesThe expression raise the stakes means  to increase the amount of money risked in a game (such as poker) or, by extension, to increase the cost or risk in taking a particular action.The French had become masters of the environment, or so they liked to think. But what they had done was to  raise the stakes  in their contest with nature.(Christopher Morris,  The Big Muddy: An Environmental History of the Mississippi and Its Peoples.  Oxford University Press, 2012)   Practice (a) Developing countries in Asia have a large _____ in maintaining an open global system of trade and investment. (b)  Over our gravied Swiss _____  and potatoes wed buck each other up about the new and unexpected future as a married couple with a child and no money.(Philip Roth,  The Facts: A Novelists Autobiography.  Farrar, Straus Giroux,  1988)(c) My God, what was going to happen?  Id never be able to leave this place. A _____  had been driven down through my head and body, rooting me forever to this spot.(Maya Angelou, Gather Together in My Name. Random House, 1974) Answers to Practice Exercises: Stake and Steak (a) Developing countries in Asia have a large  stake  in maintaining an open global system of trade and investment.(b)  Over our gravied Swiss  steak  and  potatoes  wed buck each other up about the new and unexpected future as a married couple with a child and no money.(Philip Roth,  The Facts: A Novelists Autobiography.  Farrar, Straus Giroux,  1988)(c) My God, what was going to happen?  Id never be able to leave this place. A  stake  had been driven down through my head and body, rooting me forever to this spot.(Maya Angelou,  Gather Together in My Name. Random House, 1974)