rankingvstakingWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“ranking” and “taking” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#10,729
“ranking” frequency rank
#47,767
“taking” frequency rank
58496
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ranking taking
Definition Partizip Präsens (present participle) des Verbs rank Partizip Präsens (present participle) des Verbs take

Letter map: ranking vs taking

Shared letters muted; letters that set ranking and taking apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. ranking runs 7 letters (CVCCVCC) against taking's 6 (CVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
ranking
6 ch
taking

Corpus notes: ranking and taking

ranking and taking are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58496, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ranking is recorded at frequency rank #10,729, classified as averb, pronounced […]. taking is at rank #47,767, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 58496, this pair ranks #860,498 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ranking vs taking

Shared letters: agikn. Private to "ranking": r. Private to "taking": t.

"ranking" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "taking" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rankingarnking · rakning · ranikng · rankign · rankingg · rankinng · rankking · ranknig
  • takingatking · taikng · takign · takingg · takinng · takking · taknig · tkaing

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ranking" for "taking" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "ranking" vs "taking" - which ranks higher?
"ranking" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,729 in our German list, against #47,767 for "taking". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ranking" and "taking".

  • Full dictionary entry for "ranking" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "taking" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #860,498 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ranking" and "taking" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs taking". 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 #860,498 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list