fartingvsfastingWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#30,041
“farting” frequency rank
#13,514
“fasting” frequency rank
43555
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature farting fasting
Definition present participle and gerund of fart present participle and gerund of fast

Where the eye mixes farting and fasting

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
farting
7 ch
fasting

Why the eye confuses farting with fasting

A purely visual mix-up. farting (/ˈfɑːtɪŋ/) and fasting (/ˈfæstɪŋ/) 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 a single letter - r in “farting” becomes s in “fasting”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43555, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

farting is recorded at frequency rank #30,041, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈfɑːtɪŋ/. fasting is at rank #13,514, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈfæstɪŋ/.

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 43555, this pair ranks #238,898 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of farting vs fasting

Shared letters: afgint. Private to "farting": r. Private to "fasting": s.

"farting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "fasting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fartingafrting · faritng · farrting · fartign · fartingg · fartinng · fartnig · fartting
  • fastingafsting · fasitng · fassting · fastign · fastingg · fastinng · fastnig · fastting

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "farting" and "fasting" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈfɑːtɪŋ/ versus /ˈfæstɪŋ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "farting" or "fasting"?
"fasting" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,514 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 "farting" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fasting" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #238,898 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "farting" and "fasting" 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 #238,898 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