Which to use
“conducting” is a noun and “contacting” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,346
- “conducting” frequency rank
- #13,311
- “contacting” frequency rank
- 19657
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | conducting | contacting |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Synonym of conductive. | present participle and gerund of contact |
Where the eye mixes conducting and contacting
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. conducting and contacting follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: conducting vs contacting
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: conducting is /kənˈdʌktɪŋ/ while contacting is /ˈkɑntæktɪŋ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19657, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
conducting is recorded at frequency rank #6,346, classified as anoun, pronounced /kənˈdʌktɪŋ/. contacting is at rank #13,311, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈkɑntæktɪŋ/.
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 19657, this pair ranks #436,638 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of conducting vs contacting
Shared letters: cginot. Private to "conducting": du. Private to "contacting": a.
"conducting" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCC · "contacting" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- conducting ← cconducting · cnoducting · codnucting · condcuting · condducting · conduccting · conducitng · conductign
- contacting ← ccontacting · cnotacting · conatcting · conntacting · contaccting · contacitng · contactign · contactingg
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "conducting" and "contacting" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "conducting" vs "contacting" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "conducting" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "contacting" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #436,638 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "conducting" and "contacting" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "contacting vs contesting". 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 #436,638 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.