Which to use
“downing” and “drowning” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,219
- “downing” frequency rank
- #10,040
- “drowning” frequency rank
- 26259
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | downing | drowning |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of down | present participle and gerund of drown |
Where the eye mixes downing and drowning
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. downing runs 7 letters (CVCCVCC) against drowning's 8 (CCVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses downing with drowning
A purely visual mix-up. downing (/ˈdaʊnɪŋ/) and drowning (/ˈdɹaʊnɪŋ/) 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 26259, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
downing is recorded at frequency rank #16,219, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈdaʊnɪŋ/. drowning is at rank #10,040, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈdɹaʊnɪŋ/.
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 26259, this pair ranks #388,051 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of downing vs drowning
Shared letters: dginow. Private to "downing": -. Private to "drowning": r.
"downing" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "drowning" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "downing" and "drowning" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "downing" vs "drowning" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "downing" and "drowning" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "downing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "drowning" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #388,051 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "downing" and "drowning" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Downie vs downing". 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 #388,051 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.