Which to use
“culling” is a verb and “cunning” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #34,000
- “culling” frequency rank
- #15,999
- “cunning” frequency rank
- 49999
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | culling | cunning |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of cull | Sly; crafty; clever in surreptitious behaviour. |
Where the eye mixes culling and cunning
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. culling and cunning follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between culling and cunning
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: culling is /ˈkʌlɪŋ/ while cunning is /ˈkʌnɪŋ/. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49999, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
culling is recorded at frequency rank #34,000, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈkʌlɪŋ/. cunning is at rank #15,999, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈkʌnɪŋ/.
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 49999, this pair ranks #178,293 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of culling vs cunning
Shared letters: cginu. Private to "culling": l. Private to "cunning": -.
"culling" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "cunning" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "culling" for "cunning" ever safe?
Frequency check: "culling" vs "cunning" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "culling" and "cunning" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "culling" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cunning" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #178,293 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "culling" and "cunning" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "culling vs cupping". 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 #178,293 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.