Which to use
“contacting” is a verb and “contesting” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #13,311
- “contacting” frequency rank
- #24,712
- “contesting” frequency rank
- 38023
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | contacting | contesting |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of contact | The act of one who contests something; a disputation. |
Letter map: contacting vs contesting
Shared letters muted; letters that set contacting and contesting apart highlighted. Shared run: 8.
Part-of-speech tell for contacting / contesting
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: contacting is averb and contestinganoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38023, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
contacting is recorded at frequency rank #13,311, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈkɑntæktɪŋ/. contesting is at rank #24,712, tagged as anoun.
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 38023, this pair ranks #289,499 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of contacting vs contesting
Shared letters: cginot. Private to "contacting": a. Private to "contesting": es.
"contacting" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCC · "contesting" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- contacting ← ccontacting · cnotacting · conatcting · conntacting · contaccting · contacitng · contactign · contactingg
- contesting ← ccontesting · cnotesting · conetsting · conntesting · contesitng · contessting · contestign · contestingg
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "contacting" and "contesting" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "contacting" or "contesting" show up more?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "contacting" and "contesting".
- Full dictionary entry for "contacting" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "contesting" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #289,499 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "contacting" and "contesting" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "contending 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 #289,499 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.