Which to use
“raining” is a verb and “raking” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,917
- “raining” frequency rank
- #30,932
- “raking” frequency rank
- 41849
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | raining | raking |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of rain | Swiftly moving. |
Letter map: raining vs raking
Shared letters muted; letters that set raining and raking apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.
Part-of-speech tell for raining / raking
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: raining is averb and rakinganadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41849, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
raining is recorded at frequency rank #10,917, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈɹeɪnɪŋ/. 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 41849, this pair ranks #254,581 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of raining vs raking
Shared letters: aginr. Private to "raining": -. Private to "raking": k.
"raining" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC · "raking" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "raining" and "raking" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "raining" vs "raking" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pair "raining" vs "raking" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "raining" 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 #254,581 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "raining" 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 #254,581 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.