Which to use
“admiring” is an adjective and “admitting” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #19,518
- “admiring” frequency rank
- #9,558
- “admitting” frequency rank
- 29076
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | admiring | admitting |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Feeling or showing admiration. | present participle and gerund of admit |
Where the eye mixes admiring and admitting
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. admiring runs 8 letters (VCCVCVCC) against admitting's 9 (VCCVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: admiring vs admitting
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: admiring is /ædˈmaɪ.ɚ.ɪŋ/ while admitting is /ədˈmɪtɪŋ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29076, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
admiring is recorded at frequency rank #19,518, classified as anadj, pronounced /ædˈmaɪ.ɚ.ɪŋ/. admitting is at rank #9,558, tagged as averb, pronounced /ədˈmɪtɪŋ/.
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 29076, this pair ranks #366,025 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of admiring vs admitting
Shared letters: adgimn. Private to "admiring": r. Private to "admitting": t.
"admiring" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCC · "admitting" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "admiring" and "admitting" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "admiring" or "admitting" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "admiring" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "admitting" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #366,025 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "admiring" and "admitting" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "admiring vs adoring". 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 #366,025 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.