fadingvsfartingWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“fading” and “farting” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#12,771
“fading” frequency rank
#30,041
“farting” frequency rank
42812
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fading farting
Definition present participle and gerund of fade. present participle and gerund of fart

Where the eye mixes fading and farting

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
fading
7 ch
farting

Why the eye confuses fading with farting

A purely visual mix-up. fading (/ˈfeɪdɪŋ/) and farting (/ˈfɑːtɪŋ/) 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 42812, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fading is recorded at frequency rank #12,771, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈfeɪdɪŋ/. farting is at rank #30,041, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈfɑːtɪŋ/.

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 42812, this pair ranks #245,866 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fading vs farting

Shared letters: afgin. Private to "fading": d. Private to "farting": rt.

"fading" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "farting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fadingafding · fadding · fadign · fadingg · fadinng · fadnig · faidng · fdaing
  • fartingafrting · faritng · farrting · fartign · fartingg · fartinng · fartnig · fartting

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fading" and "farting" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈfeɪdɪŋ/ versus /ˈfɑːtɪŋ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "fading" or "farting"?
"fading" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,771 in our English list, against #30,041 for "farting". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fading" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "farting" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #245,866 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fading" and "farting" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "farting vs forking". 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 #245,866 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