relatingvsretakingWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#5,076
“relating” frequency rank
#49,592
“retaking” frequency rank
54668
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature relating retaking
Definition present participle and gerund of relate The act of taking again.

Letter map: relating vs retaking

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

8 ch
relating
8 ch
retaking

Part-of-speech tell for relating / retaking

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: relating is averb and retakinganoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54668, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

relating is recorded at frequency rank #5,076, classified as averb, pronounced /ɹɪˈleɪtɪŋ/. 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 54668, this pair ranks #139,299 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of relating vs retaking

Shared letters: aeginrt. Private to "relating": l. Private to "retaking": k.

"relating" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC  ·  "retaking" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • relatingerlating · realting · relaitng · relatign · relatingg · relatinng · relatnig · relatting
  • retakingertaking · reatking · retaikng · retakign · retakingg · retakinng · retakking · retaknig

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "relating" for "retaking" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "relating" is a verb and "retaking" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "relating" vs "retaking" - which ranks higher?
"relating" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,076 in our English list, against #49,592 for "retaking". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "relating" 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 #139,299 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "relating" 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 #139,299 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