rakingvsriskingTell them apart

Quick tell: raking is a adjective, risking is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“raking” is an adjective and “risking” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,932
“raking” frequency rank
#14,008
“risking” frequency rank
44940
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature raking risking
Definition Swiftly moving. The act by which something is risked.

Letter map: raking vs risking

Shared letters muted; letters that set raking and risking apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

6 ch
raking
7 ch
risking

Part-of-speech tell for raking / risking

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: raking is anadjective and riskinganoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44940, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

raking is recorded at frequency rank #30,932, classified as anadj. risking is at rank #14,008, tagged as anoun.

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 44940, this pair ranks #225,932 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of raking vs risking

Shared letters: giknr. Private to "raking": a. Private to "risking": s.

"raking" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "risking" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rakingarking · raikng · rakign · rakingg · rakinng · rakking · raknig · rkaing
  • riskingirsking · riksing · risikng · riskign · riskingg · riskinng · riskking · risknig

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "raking" and "risking" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "raking" is an adjective and "risking" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "raking" or "risking"?
"risking" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,008 in our English list, against #30,932 for "raking". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "raking" vs "risking" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "raking" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "risking" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #225,932 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "raking" and "risking" 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 #225,932 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list