Which to use
“drawing” is a verb and “drawings” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,575
- “drawing” frequency rank
- #6,676
- “drawings” frequency rank
- 9251
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | drawing | drawings |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of draw | plural of drawing |
Where the eye mixes drawing and drawings
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. drawing runs 7 letters (CCVCVCC) against drawings's 8 (CCVCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses drawing with drawings
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: drawing is /ˈdɹɔː.ɪŋ/ while drawings is /ˈdɹɔː(ɹ)ɪŋz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “drawing” sits inside “drawings”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9251, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
drawing is recorded at frequency rank #2,575, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈdɹɔː.ɪŋ/. drawings is at rank #6,676, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdɹɔː(ɹ)ɪŋz/.
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 9251, this pair ranks #498,339 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of drawing vs drawings
Shared letters: adginrw. Private to "drawing": -. Private to "drawings": s.
"drawing" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC · "drawings" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "drawing" and "drawings" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "drawing" vs "drawings" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "drawing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "drawings" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #498,339 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "drawing" and "drawings" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dawning vs drawing". 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 #498,339 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.