Which to use
“appalling” is a verb and “appealing” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #15,750
- “appalling” frequency rank
- #7,647
- “appealing” frequency rank
- 23397
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | appalling | appealing |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of appall | Having appeal; attractive. |
Where the eye mixes appalling and appealing
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses appalling with appealing
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: appalling is /əˈpɔːlɪŋ/ while appealing is /əˈpiː.lɪŋ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23397, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
appalling is recorded at frequency rank #15,750, classified as averb, pronounced /əˈpɔːlɪŋ/. appealing is at rank #7,647, tagged as anadj, pronounced /əˈpiː.lɪŋ/.
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 23397, this pair ranks #409,581 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of appalling vs appealing
Shared letters: agilnp. Private to "appalling": -. Private to "appealing": e.
"appalling" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCC · "appealing" · 9 letters · shape VCCVVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "appalling" for "appealing" ever safe?
Which is more common, "appalling" or "appealing"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "appalling" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "appealing" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #409,581 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "appalling" and "appealing" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "annealing vs appealing". 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 #409,581 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.