Which to use
“sinking” is a noun and “staking” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,251
- “sinking” frequency rank
- #33,033
- “staking” frequency rank
- 42284
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sinking | staking |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | gerund of sink: the process by which something sinks, or is sunk. | present participle and gerund of stake |
Letter map: sinking vs staking
Shared letters muted; letters that set sinking and staking apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.
Part-of-speech tell for sinking / staking
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sinking is anoun and stakingaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42284, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sinking is recorded at frequency rank #9,251, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɪŋkɪŋ/. staking is at rank #33,033, tagged as averb.
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 42284, this pair ranks #250,638 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sinking vs staking
Shared letters: gikns. Private to "sinking": -. Private to "staking": at.
"sinking" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "staking" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "sinking" and "staking" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "sinking" or "staking"?
After this comparison
You've compared "sinking" and "staking". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "sinking" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "staking" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #250,638 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sinking" and "staking" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "staking vs sulking". 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 #250,638 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.