take one's time

verb

"take-one-s-time" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“take one's time” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
15
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To go about something slowly and carefully or at one's own pace.

Corpus desk

Index EN-take-one-s-time · take one's time · English

take one's time · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 15 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "T" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for take one's time
PropertyValue
Headwordtake one's time
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters15
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “take one's time” in English

take one's timesits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

take one's time is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for take one's time, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is take one's time, spelled T-A-K-E- -O-N-E-'-S- -T-I-M-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    To go about something slowly and carefully or at one's own pace.
  2. 2
    To take more time to do something than is considered acceptable.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how take one's time appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Take your time — there's no need to rush.
  2. Working with pick, shovel, and wheelbarrow, he took his time over the job, for it was not until May 17, 1816, that it was opened for traffic.

Synonyms

dawdletake too longtarry

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "take one's time"?
"take one's time" is spelled T-A-K-E- -O-N-E-'-S- -T-I-M-E.
What does "take one's time" mean?
As a verb, "take one's time" means: To go about something slowly and carefully or at one's own pace.
What language does "take one's time" come from?
"take one's time" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list