adjoiningvsadorningWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#14,877
“adjoining” frequency rank
#49,753
“adorning” frequency rank
64630
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature adjoining adorning
Definition Being in contact at some point or line; joining to. An adornment.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set adjoining and adorning apart are highlighted. They share 7 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

9 ch
adjoining
8 ch
adorning

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: adjoining is anadjective and adorninganoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64630, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

adjoining is recorded at frequency rank #14,877, classified as anadj, pronounced /əˈd͡ʒɔɪ.nɪŋ/. adorning is at rank #49,753, 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 64630, this pair ranks #76,751 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of adjoining vs adorning

Shared letters: adgino. Private to "adjoining": j. Private to "adorning": r.

"adjoining" · 9 letters · shape VCCVVCVCC  ·  "adorning" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • adjoiningaddjoining · adjioning · adjjoining · adjoiinng · adjoinign · adjoiningg · adjoininng · adjoinnig
  • adorningaddorning · adonring · adornign · adorningg · adorninng · adornnig · adornning · adorrning

Frequency comparison

adjoining#14,877
adorning#49,753

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "adjoining" and "adorning" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "adjoining" is an adjective and "adorning" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "adjoining" or "adorning"?
"adjoining" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,877 in our English list, against #49,753 for "adorning". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering adjoining vs adorning

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “adjoining”; for a noun, it's “adorning”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “adjoining” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list