faintingvsfartingWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#28,544
“fainting” frequency rank
#30,041
“farting” frequency rank
58585
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fainting farting
Definition present participle and gerund of faint present participle and gerund of fart

Where the eye mixes fainting and farting

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. fainting runs 8 letters (CVVCCVCC) against farting's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
fainting
7 ch
farting

Look-alike desk: fainting vs farting

A purely visual mix-up. fainting (/ˈfeɪntɪŋ/) 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 58585, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fainting is recorded at frequency rank #28,544, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈfeɪntɪŋ/. 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 58585, this pair ranks #111,611 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fainting vs farting

Shared letters: afgint. Private to "fainting": -. Private to "farting": r.

"fainting" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC  ·  "farting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fainting ← afinting · fainitng · fainnting · faintign · faintingg · faintinng · faintnig · faintting
  • farting ← afrting · faritng · farrting · fartign · fartingg · fartinng · fartnig · fartting

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fainting" and "farting" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈfeɪntɪŋ/ versus /ˈfɑːtɪŋ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "fainting" or "farting"?
"fainting" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,544 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

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fainting" 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 #111,611 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fainting" 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 #111,611 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