Which to use
“decaying” and “declaring” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,137
- “decaying” frequency rank
- #9,314
- “declaring” frequency rank
- 33451
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | decaying | declaring |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of decay | present participle and gerund of declare |
Letter map: decaying vs declaring
Shared letters muted; letters that set decaying and declaring apart highlighted. Shared run: 7.
Pair insight - decaying / declaring
decaying and declaring 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 33451, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
decaying is recorded at frequency rank #24,137, classified as averb. declaring is at rank #9,314, tagged as averb, pronounced /dɪˈklɛɹɪŋ/.
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 33451, this pair ranks #329,338 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of decaying vs declaring
Shared letters: acdegin. Private to "decaying": y. Private to "declaring": lr.
"decaying" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVVCC · "declaring" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "decaying" for "declaring" ever safe?
Frequency check: "decaying" vs "declaring" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
You've compared "decaying" and "declaring". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "decaying" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "declaring" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #329,338 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "decaying" and "declaring" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "decaying vs decking". 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 #329,338 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.