Which to use
“alarming” is a verb and “awarding” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #14,262
- “alarming” frequency rank
- #17,080
- “awarding” frequency rank
- 31342
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | alarming | awarding |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of alarm | The act of bestowing an award. |
Letter map: alarming vs awarding
Shared letters muted; letters that set alarming and awarding apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. alarming and awarding follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Role in the sentence - alarming and awarding
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: alarming is averb and awardinganoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31342, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
alarming is recorded at frequency rank #14,262, classified as averb, pronounced /əˈlɑːm.ɪŋ/. awarding is at rank #17,080, 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 31342, this pair ranks #346,952 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of alarming vs awarding
Shared letters: aginr. Private to "alarming": lm. Private to "awarding": dw.
"alarming" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVCC · "awarding" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "alarming" and "awarding" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "alarming" or "awarding"?
What to do next
Pair "alarming" vs "awarding" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "alarming" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "awarding" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #346,952 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "alarming" and "awarding" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alarming vs alarmist". 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 #346,952 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.