awaitingvsawardingWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: awaiting is a verb, awarding is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“awaiting” is a verb and “awarding” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,329
“awaiting” frequency rank
#17,080
“awarding” frequency rank
27409
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature awaiting awarding
Definition present participle and gerund of await The act of bestowing an award.

Letter map: awaiting vs awarding

Shared letters muted; letters that set awaiting and awarding apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. awaiting (VCVVCVCC) and awarding (VCVCCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
awaiting
8 ch
awarding

Grammar separator: awaiting vs awarding

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: awaiting 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 27409, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

awaiting is recorded at frequency rank #10,329, classified as averb, pronounced /əˈweɪtɪŋ/. 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 27409, this pair ranks #379,138 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of awaiting vs awarding

Shared letters: aginw. Private to "awaiting": t. Private to "awarding": dr.

"awaiting" · 8 letters · shape VCVVCVCC  ·  "awarding" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • awaiting ← aawiting · awaiitng · awaitign · awaitingg · awaitinng · awaitnig · awaitting · awatiing
  • awarding ← aawrding · awadring · awardding · awardign · awardingg · awardinng · awardnig · awaridng

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "awaiting" and "awarding" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "awaiting" is a verb and "awarding" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "awaiting" or "awarding" show up more?
"awaiting" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,329 in our English list, against #17,080 for "awarding". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "awaiting" and "awarding".

  • Full dictionary entry for "awaiting" 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 #379,138 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "awaiting" and "awarding" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alarming vs awarding". 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 #379,138 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list