Which to use
“take” is a verb and “tine” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #128
- “take” frequency rank
- #44,530
- “tine” frequency rank
- 44658
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | take | tine |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To get into one's hands, possession, or control, with or without force. | A spike or point on an implement or tool, especially a prong of a fork or a tooth of a comb. |
Where the eye mixes take and tine
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. take and tine follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: take vs tine
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: take is /teɪk/ while tine is /taɪn/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44658, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
take is recorded at frequency rank #128, classified as averb, pronounced /teɪk/. tine is at rank #44,530, tagged as anoun, pronounced /taɪn/.
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 44658, this pair ranks #228,492 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of take vs tine
Shared letters: et. Private to "take": ak. Private to "tine": in.
"take" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "tine" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "take" for "tine" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "take" or "tine" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "take" and "tine" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "take" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #228,492 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "take" and "tine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tine vs tobe". 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 #228,492 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.