clockingvsclothingWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: clocking is a noun, clothing is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“clocking” is a noun and “clothing” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,986
“clocking” frequency rank
#3,155
“clothing” frequency rank
37141
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature clocking clothing
Definition A time measurement made according to a clock. present participle and gerund of clothe

Letter map: clocking vs clothing

Shared letters muted; letters that set clocking and clothing apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. clocking and clothing follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
clocking
8 ch
clothing

Grammar separator: clocking vs clothing

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: clocking is anoun and clothingaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37141, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clocking is recorded at frequency rank #33,986, classified as anoun. clothing is at rank #3,155, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈkləʊðɪŋ/.

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 37141, this pair ranks #297,049 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of clocking vs clothing

Shared letters: cgilno. Private to "clocking": k. Private to "clothing": ht.

"clocking" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC  ·  "clothing" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • clocking ← cclocking · clcoking · cllocking · cloccking · clocikng · clockign · clockingg · clockinng
  • clothing ← cclothing · cllothing · clohting · clothhing · clothign · clothingg · clothinng · clothnig

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "clocking" for "clothing" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "clocking" is a noun and "clothing" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "clocking" or "clothing" show up more?
"clothing" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,155 in our English list, against #33,986 for "clocking". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "clocking" and "clothing".

  • Full dictionary entry for "clocking" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "clothing" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #297,049 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "clocking" and "clothing" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clocking vs clouding". 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 #297,049 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