ensuingvsensuringTell them apart

Quick tell: ensuing is a adjective, ensuring is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ensuing” is an adjective and “ensuring” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,117
“ensuing” frequency rank
#7,130
“ensuring” frequency rank
21247
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ensuing ensuring
Definition Refers to the actions, consequences, and repercussions which result from some prior stimulus or event. present participle and gerund of ensure

Letter map: ensuing vs ensuring

Shared letters muted; letters that set ensuing and ensuring apart highlighted. Shared run: 7.

7 ch
ensuing
8 ch
ensuring

Role in the sentence - ensuing and ensuring

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ensuing is anadjective and ensuringaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21247, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ensuing is recorded at frequency rank #14,117, classified as anadj. ensuring is at rank #7,130, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɪnˈʃʊəɹɪŋ/.

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 21247, this pair ranks #425,290 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ensuing vs ensuring

Shared letters: eginsu. Private to "ensuing": -. Private to "ensuring": r.

"ensuing" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCC  ·  "ensuring" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ensuingennsuing · ensiung · enssuing · ensuign · ensuingg · ensuinng · ensunig · enusing
  • ensuringennsuring · ensruing · enssuring · ensuirng · ensurign · ensuringg · ensurinng · ensurnig

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ensuing" for "ensuring" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ensuing" is an adjective and "ensuring" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ensuing" vs "ensuring" - which ranks higher?
"ensuring" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,130 in our English list, against #14,117 for "ensuing". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "ensuing" vs "ensuring" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ensuing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ensuring" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #425,290 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ensuing" and "ensuring" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "easing vs ensuing". 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 #425,290 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list