barkingvsboardingConfusable pair

Which to use

“barking” and “boarding” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#14,698
“barking” frequency rank
#7,530
“boarding” frequency rank
22228
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature barking boarding
Definition present participle and gerund of bark present participle and gerund of board

Letter map: barking vs boarding

Shared letters muted; letters that set barking and boarding apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.

7 ch
barking
8 ch
boarding

Corpus notes: barking and boarding

barking and boarding are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22228, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

barking is recorded at frequency rank #14,698, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈbɑɹkɪŋ/. boarding is at rank #7,530, tagged as averb.

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 22228, this pair ranks #418,089 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of barking vs boarding

Shared letters: abginr. Private to "barking": k. Private to "boarding": do.

"barking" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "boarding" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • barkingabrking · bakring · barikng · barkign · barkingg · barkinng · barkking · barknig
  • boardingbaording · bboarding · boadring · boardding · boardign · boardingg · boardinng · boardnig

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "barking" and "boarding" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "barking" vs "boarding" - which ranks higher?
"boarding" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,530 in our English list, against #14,698 for "barking". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "barking" and "boarding". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "barking" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "boarding" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #418,089 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "barking" and "boarding" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "barking vs blacking". 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 #418,089 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