Which to use
“discussing” is a verb and “disgusting” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,848
- “discussing” frequency rank
- #4,849
- “disgusting” frequency rank
- 9697
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | discussing | disgusting |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of discuss | Causing disgust; repulsive; distasteful. |
Where the eye mixes discussing and disgusting
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. discussing and disgusting follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses discussing with disgusting
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: discussing is /dɪˈskʌsɪŋ/ while disgusting is /dɪsˈɡʌstɪŋ/. 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 9697, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
discussing is recorded at frequency rank #4,848, classified as averb, pronounced /dɪˈskʌsɪŋ/. disgusting is at rank #4,849, tagged as anadj, pronounced /dɪsˈɡʌstɪŋ/.
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 9697, this pair ranks #496,077 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of discussing vs disgusting
Shared letters: dginsu. Private to "discussing": c. Private to "disgusting": t.
"discussing" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCC · "disgusting" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- discussing ← ddiscussing · dicsussing · disccussing · discsusing · discusing · discusisng · discussign · discussingg
- disgusting ← ddisgusting · digsusting · disggusting · disgsuting · disgusitng · disgussting · disgustign · disgustingg
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "discussing" and "disgusting" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "discussing" or "disgusting" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "discussing" and "disgusting" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "discussing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "disgusting" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #496,077 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "discussing" and "disgusting" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "disgusting vs disgustingly". 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 #496,077 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.