Which to use
“spiking” is an adjective and “staking” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #38,173
- “spiking” frequency rank
- #33,033
- “staking” frequency rank
- 71206
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | spiking | staking |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | spiky | present participle and gerund of stake |
Letter map: spiking vs staking
Shared letters muted; letters that set spiking and staking apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.
Part-of-speech tell for spiking / staking
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: spiking is anadjective and stakingaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71206, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
spiking is recorded at frequency rank #38,173, classified as anadj. 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 71206, this pair ranks #47,594 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of spiking vs staking
Shared letters: gikns. Private to "spiking": p. Private to "staking": at.
"spiking" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC · "staking" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "spiking" for "staking" ever safe?
Which is more common, "spiking" or "staking"?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "spiking" and "staking".
- Full dictionary entry for "spiking" 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 #47,594 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "spiking" and "staking" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "spiking 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 #47,594 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.