walkingvsworkingWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“walking” and “working” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#12,632
“walking” frequency rank
#19,089
“working” frequency rank
31721
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature walking working
Definition Partizip Präsens (present participle) des Verbs walk Partizip Präsens (present participle) des Verbs work

Letter map: walking vs working

Shared letters muted; letters that set walking and working apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

7 ch
walking
7 ch
working

Pair insight - walking / working

walking and working are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31721, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

walking is recorded at frequency rank #12,632, classified as averb, pronounced [wɔːkɪŋ]. working is at rank #19,089, 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 31721, this pair ranks #1,722,442 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of walking vs working

Shared letters: giknw. Private to "walking": al. Private to "working": or.

"walking" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "working" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • walkingawlking · wakling · walikng · walkign · walkingg · walkinng · walkking · walknig
  • workingowrking · wokring · worikng · workign · workingg · workinng · workking · worknig

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "walking" and "working" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "walking" vs "working" - which ranks higher?
"walking" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,632 in our German list, against #19,089 for "working". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "walking" vs "working" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "walking" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "working" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,722,442 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "walking" and "working" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs working". 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 #1,722,442 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