takingvstaskingWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: taking is a adjective, tasking is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“taking” is an adjective and “tasking” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#406
“taking” frequency rank
#39,129
“tasking” frequency rank
39535
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature taking tasking
Definition Alluring; attractive. A task; an assigned item of work.

Letter map: taking vs tasking

Shared letters muted; letters that set taking and tasking apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.

6 ch
taking
7 ch
tasking

Role in the sentence - taking and tasking

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: taking is anadjective and taskinganoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39535, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

taking is recorded at frequency rank #406, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈteɪkɪŋ/. tasking is at rank #39,129, 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 39535, this pair ranks #275,787 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of taking vs tasking

Shared letters: agiknt. Private to "taking": -. Private to "tasking": s.

"taking" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "tasking" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • takingatking · taikng · takign · takingg · takinng · takking · taknig · tkaing
  • taskingatsking · taksing · tasikng · taskign · taskingg · taskinng · taskking · tasknig

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "taking" and "tasking" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "taking" is an adjective and "tasking" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "taking" vs "tasking" - which ranks higher?
"taking" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #406 in our English list, against #39,129 for "tasking". 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 "taking" and "tasking".

  • Full dictionary entry for "taking" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tasking" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #275,787 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "taking" and "tasking" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tasking vs toasting". 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 #275,787 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