cloggingvsclosingConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#32,326
“clogging” frequency rank
#3,218
“closing” frequency rank
35544
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature clogging closing
Definition The situation of something being clogged. The act by which something is closed.

Letter map: clogging vs closing

Shared letters muted; letters that set clogging and closing apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.

8 ch
clogging
7 ch
closing

Corpus notes: clogging and closing

clogging and closing are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35544, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clogging is recorded at frequency rank #32,326, classified as anoun. closing is at rank #3,218, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkləʊzɪŋ/.

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 35544, this pair ranks #311,050 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of clogging vs closing

Shared letters: cgilno. Private to "clogging": -. Private to "closing": s.

"clogging" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC  ·  "closing" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cloggingcclogging · clgoging · cllogging · cloggign · cloggingg · clogginng · cloggnig · clogigng
  • closingcclosing · cllosing · cloisng · closign · closingg · closinng · closnig · clossing

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "clogging" for "closing" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary English text, does "clogging" or "closing" show up more?
"closing" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,218 in our English list, against #32,326 for "clogging". 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 "clogging" and "closing".

  • Full dictionary entry for "clogging" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "closing" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #311,050 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "clogging" and "closing" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clogging 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 #311,050 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