Which to use
“racing” is a noun and “raking” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,017
- “racing” frequency rank
- #30,932
- “raking” frequency rank
- 33949
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | racing | raking |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The sport of competing in races. | Swiftly moving. |
Letter map: racing vs raking
Shared letters muted; letters that set racing and raking apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. racing and raking follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Part-of-speech tell for racing / raking
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: racing is anoun and rakinganadjective. On the page they differ by a single letter - c in “racing” becomes k in “raking”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33949, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
racing is recorded at frequency rank #3,017, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɹeɪsɪŋ/. raking is at rank #30,932, tagged as anadj.
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 33949, this pair ranks #324,973 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of racing vs raking
Shared letters: aginr. Private to "racing": c. Private to "raking": k.
"racing" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "raking" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "racing" for "raking" ever safe?
Which is more common, "racing" or "raking"?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "racing" and "raking".
- Full dictionary entry for "racing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "raking" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #324,973 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "racing" and "raking" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "raking vs retaking". 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 #324,973 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.