Which to use
“fasting” and “fisting” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,514
- “fasting” frequency rank
- #44,784
- “fisting” frequency rank
- 58298
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fasting | fisting |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of fast | present participle and gerund of fist |
Where the eye mixes fasting and fisting
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. fasting and fisting follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: fasting vs fisting
A purely visual mix-up. fasting (/ˈfæstɪŋ/) and fisting (/ˈfɪstɪŋ/) 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 - a in “fasting” becomes i in “fisting”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58298, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fasting is recorded at frequency rank #13,514, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈfæstɪŋ/. fisting is at rank #44,784, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈfɪstɪŋ/.
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 58298, this pair ranks #113,506 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fasting vs fisting
Shared letters: fginst. Private to "fasting": a. Private to "fisting": -.
"fasting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "fisting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fasting" and "fisting" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "fasting" or "fisting" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "fasting" and "fisting" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fasting" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fisting" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #113,506 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fasting" and "fisting" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fisting vs fussing". 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 #113,506 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.