Which to use
“causing” is a verb and “coursing” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,823
- “causing” frequency rank
- #42,073
- “coursing” frequency rank
- 44896
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | causing | coursing |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of cause | The sport of chasing wild animals, especially hares, with dogs by sight rather than by scent. |
Letter map: causing vs coursing
Shared letters muted; letters that set causing and coursing apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.
Part-of-speech tell for causing / coursing
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: causing is averb and coursinganoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44896, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
causing is recorded at frequency rank #2,823, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈkɔːzɪŋ/. coursing is at rank #42,073, 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 44896, this pair ranks #226,329 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of causing vs coursing
Shared letters: cginsu. Private to "causing": a. Private to "coursing": or.
"causing" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC · "coursing" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "causing" and "coursing" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "causing" or "coursing"?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "causing" and "coursing".
- Full dictionary entry for "causing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "coursing" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #226,329 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "causing" and "coursing" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coursing vs cussing". 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 #226,329 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.