Which to use
“raking” is an adjective and “rowing” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,932
- “raking” frequency rank
- #17,469
- “rowing” frequency rank
- 48401
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | raking | rowing |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Swiftly moving. | present participle and gerund of row (“propel with oars”) |
Letter map: raking vs rowing
Shared letters muted; letters that set raking and rowing apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.
Part-of-speech tell for raking / rowing
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: raking is anadjective and rowingaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48401, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
raking is recorded at frequency rank #30,932, classified as anadj. rowing is at rank #17,469, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈɹoʊɪŋ/.
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 48401, this pair ranks #193,403 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of raking vs rowing
Shared letters: ginr. Private to "raking": ak. Private to "rowing": ow.
"raking" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "rowing" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "raking" and "rowing" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "raking" or "rowing" show up more?
What to do next
You've compared "raking" and "rowing". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "raking" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "rowing" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #193,403 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "raking" and "rowing" 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 #193,403 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.