mossvsrunningWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: moss is a noun, running is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“moss” is a noun and “running” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,244
“moss” frequency rank
#15,470
“running” frequency rank
38714
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature moss running
Definition wurzellose Sporenpflanze mit Generationswechsel, die in ihrem Aufbau simpel und kaum gegliedert ist Partizip Präsens (present participle) des Verbs run

Letter map: moss vs running

Shared letters muted; letters that set moss and running apart highlighted. No shared letter run. moss runs 4 letters (CVCC) against running's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
moss
7 ch
running

Part-of-speech tell for moss / running

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: moss is anoun and runningaverb. On the page they differ by 3 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38714, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

moss is recorded at frequency rank #23,244, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. running is at rank #15,470, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 38714, this pair ranks #1,556,589 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of moss vs running

Shared letters: none. Private to "moss": mos. Private to "running": ginru.

"moss" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "running" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mossmmoss · moß · msos · omss
  • runningrnuning · rrunning · runing · runinng · runnign · runningg · runninng · runnnig

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "moss" and "running" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "moss" is a noun and "running" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "moss" or "running"?
"running" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,470 in our German list, against #23,244 for "moss". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "moss" and "running".

  • Full dictionary entry for "moss" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "running" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,556,589 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "moss" and "running" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moss vs puzzles". 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 #1,556,589 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list