readingvsretakingWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#753
“reading” frequency rank
#49,592
“retaking” frequency rank
50345
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reading retaking
Definition present participle and gerund of read The act of taking again.

Letter map: reading vs retaking

Shared letters muted; letters that set reading and retaking apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.

7 ch
reading
8 ch
retaking

Part-of-speech tell for reading / retaking

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: reading is averb and retakinganoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50345, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reading is recorded at frequency rank #753, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈɹiːdɪŋ/. retaking is at rank #49,592, 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 50345, this pair ranks #175,172 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of reading vs retaking

Shared letters: aeginr. Private to "reading": d. Private to "retaking": kt.

"reading" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC  ·  "retaking" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • readingerading · raeding · readding · readign · readingg · readinng · readnig · reaidng
  • retakingertaking · reatking · retaikng · retakign · retakingg · retakinng · retakking · retaknig

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "reading" and "retaking" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "reading" is a verb and "retaking" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "reading" or "retaking" show up more?
"reading" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #753 in our English list, against #49,592 for "retaking". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "reading" and "retaking".

  • Full dictionary entry for "reading" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "retaking" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #175,172 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reading" and "retaking" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "retaking vs revoking". 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 #175,172 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