chargingvschasingTell them apart

Which to use

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

#5,397
“charging” frequency rank
#5,864
“chasing” frequency rank
11261
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature charging chasing
Definition present participle and gerund of charge present participle and gerund of chase

Where the eye mixes charging and chasing

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
charging
7 ch
chasing

Visual trap between charging and chasing

A purely visual mix-up. charging (/ˈt͡ʃɑɹd͡ʒɪŋ/) and chasing (/ˈt͡ʃeɪsɪŋ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11261, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

charging is recorded at frequency rank #5,397, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈt͡ʃɑɹd͡ʒɪŋ/. chasing is at rank #5,864, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈt͡ʃeɪsɪŋ/.

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 11261, this pair ranks #488,006 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of charging vs chasing

Shared letters: acghin. Private to "charging": r. Private to "chasing": s.

"charging" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC  ·  "chasing" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chargingcahrging · ccharging · chagring · chargging · chargign · chargingg · charginng · chargnig
  • chasingcahsing · cchasing · chaisng · chasign · chasingg · chasinng · chasnig · chassing

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "charging" and "chasing" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈt͡ʃɑɹd͡ʒɪŋ/ versus /ˈt͡ʃeɪsɪŋ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "charging" or "chasing" show up more?
"charging" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,397 in our English list, against #5,864 for "chasing". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "charging" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chasing" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #488,006 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "charging" and "chasing" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chaining vs chasing". 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 #488,006 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