castingvsclashingWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: casting is a verb, clashing is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“casting” is a verb and “clashing” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,581
“casting” frequency rank
#32,324
“clashing” frequency rank
37905
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature casting clashing
Definition present participle and gerund of cast conflicting, contrasting, or contrary; inconsonant, incompatible, or irreconcilable

Letter map: casting vs clashing

Shared letters muted; letters that set casting and clashing apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.

7 ch
casting
8 ch
clashing

Grammar separator: casting vs clashing

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: casting is averb and clashinganadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37905, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

casting is recorded at frequency rank #5,581, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈkæstɪŋ/. clashing is at rank #32,324, tagged as anadj.

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 37905, this pair ranks #290,486 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of casting vs clashing

Shared letters: acgins. Private to "casting": t. Private to "clashing": hl.

"casting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "clashing" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • castingacsting · casitng · cassting · castign · castingg · castinng · castnig · castting
  • clashingcalshing · cclashing · clahsing · clashhing · clashign · clashingg · clashinng · clashnig

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "casting" for "clashing" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "casting" is a verb and "clashing" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "casting" or "clashing" show up more?
"casting" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,581 in our English list, against #32,324 for "clashing". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "casting" vs "clashing" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "casting" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "clashing" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #290,486 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "casting" and "clashing" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caching vs clashing". 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 #290,486 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