realityvstakingWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: reality is a noun, taking is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“reality” is a noun and “taking” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,922
“reality” frequency rank
#47,767
“taking” frequency rank
58689
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reality taking
Definition Realität, Wirklichkeit Partizip Präsens (present participle) des Verbs take

Letter map: reality vs taking

Shared letters muted; letters that set reality and taking apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. reality runs 7 letters (CVVCVCV) against taking's 6 (CVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
reality
6 ch
taking

Role in the sentence - reality and taking

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: reality is anoun and takingaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58689, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reality is recorded at frequency rank #10,922, classified as anoun, 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 58689, this pair ranks #853,039 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of reality vs taking

Shared letters: ait. Private to "reality": elry. Private to "taking": gkn.

"reality" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV  ·  "taking" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • realityerality · raelity · reailty · realitty · realityy · realiyt · reallity · realtiy
  • takingatking · taikng · takign · takingg · takinng · takking · taknig · tkaing

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "reality" and "taking" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "reality" is a noun and "taking" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "reality" or "taking"?
"reality" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,922 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

Pair "reality" vs "taking" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "reality" 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 #853,039 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reality" 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 #853,039 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