Which to use
“exhilarating” is a verb and “exhilaration” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #24,746
- “exhilarating” frequency rank
- #49,908
- “exhilaration” frequency rank
- 74654
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | exhilarating | exhilaration |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of exhilarate | The act of enlivening the spirits; the act of making glad or cheerful; a gladdening. |
Letter map: exhilarating vs exhilaration
Shared letters muted; letters that set exhilarating and exhilaration apart highlighted. Shared run: 11.
Role in the sentence - exhilarating and exhilaration
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: exhilarating is averb and exhilarationanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74654, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
exhilarating is recorded at frequency rank #24,746, classified as averb. exhilaration is at rank #49,908, tagged as anoun.
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 74654, this pair ranks #35,674 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of exhilarating vs exhilaration
Shared letters: aehilnrtx. Private to "exhilarating": g. Private to "exhilaration": o.
"exhilarating" · 12 letters · shape VCCVCVCVCVCC · "exhilaration" · 12 letters · shape VCCVCVCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- exhilarating ← ehxilarating · exhhilarating · exhialrating · exhilaarting · exhilaraitng · exhilaratign · exhilaratingg · exhilaratinng
- exhilaration ← ehxilaration · exhhilaration · exhialration · exhilaartion · exhilaraiton · exhilarasion · exhilaratino · exhilarationn
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "exhilarating" and "exhilaration" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "exhilarating" or "exhilaration" show up more?
Useful next steps
You've compared "exhilarating" and "exhilaration". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "exhilarating" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "exhilaration" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #35,674 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- 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 #35,674 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.