Which to use
“denying” and “drying” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,673
- “denying” frequency rank
- #10,529
- “drying” frequency rank
- 18202
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | denying | drying |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of deny | present participle and gerund of dry |
Where the eye mixes denying and drying
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: denying vs drying
A purely visual mix-up. denying (/dɪˈnaɪ.ɪŋ/) and drying (/ˈdɹaɪ.ɪŋ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18202, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
denying is recorded at frequency rank #7,673, classified as averb, pronounced /dɪˈnaɪ.ɪŋ/. drying is at rank #10,529, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈdɹaɪ.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 18202, this pair ranks #446,453 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of denying vs drying
Shared letters: dginy. Private to "denying": e. Private to "drying": r.
"denying" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC · "drying" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "denying" for "drying" ever safe?
Frequency check: "denying" vs "drying" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "denying" and "drying" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "denying" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "drying" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #446,453 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "denying" and "drying" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dozing vs drying". 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 #446,453 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.