Which to use
“delaying” is a noun and “denying” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #17,342
- “delaying” frequency rank
- #7,673
- “denying” frequency rank
- 25015
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | delaying | denying |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A delay. | present participle and gerund of deny |
Letter map: delaying vs denying
Shared letters muted; letters that set delaying and denying apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. delaying runs 8 letters (CVCVVVCC) against denying's 7 (CVCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Part-of-speech tell for delaying / denying
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: delaying is anoun and denyingaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25015, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
delaying is recorded at frequency rank #17,342, classified as anoun. denying is at rank #7,673, tagged as averb, pronounced /dɪˈnaɪ.ɪŋ/.
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 25015, this pair ranks #397,582 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of delaying vs denying
Shared letters: deginy. Private to "delaying": al. Private to "denying": -.
"delaying" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVVCC · "denying" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "delaying" and "denying" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "delaying" or "denying"?
What to do next
Pair "delaying" vs "denying" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "delaying" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "denying" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #397,582 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "delaying" and "denying" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "delaying vs delving". 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 #397,582 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.