Which to use
“citing” and “siting” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,777
- “citing” frequency rank
- #42,898
- “siting” frequency rank
- 50675
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | citing | siting |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of cite | present participle and gerund of site |
Same sound, different letters: citing vs siting
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - citing and siting
This is the hard kind. citing and siting are pronounced identically (/ˈsaɪtɪŋ/) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by a single letter - c in “citing” becomes s in “siting”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50675, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
citing is recorded at frequency rank #7,777, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈsaɪtɪŋ/. siting is at rank #42,898, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈsaɪtɪŋ/.
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 50675, this pair ranks #172,153 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of citing vs siting
Shared letters: gint. Private to "citing": c. Private to "siting": s.
"citing" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "siting" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "citing" for "siting" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "citing" or "siting" show up more?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "citing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "siting" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #172,153 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "citing" and "siting" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "siting vs suiting". 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 #172,153 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.