feedingvsfellingWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: feeding is a verb, felling is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“feeding” is a verb and “felling” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,448
“feeding” frequency rank
#38,837
“felling” frequency rank
43285
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature feeding felling
Definition present participle and gerund of feed The act by which something is felled.

Letter map: feeding vs felling

Shared letters muted; letters that set feeding and felling apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. feeding (CVVCVCC) and felling (CVCCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
feeding
7 ch
felling

Grammar separator: feeding vs felling

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: feeding is averb and fellinganoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43285, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

feeding is recorded at frequency rank #4,448, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈfiːdɪŋ/. felling is at rank #38,837, 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 43285, this pair ranks #241,465 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of feeding vs felling

Shared letters: efgin. Private to "feeding": d. Private to "felling": l.

"feeding" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC  ·  "felling" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • feeding ← efeding · fedeing · feding · feedding · feedign · feedingg · feedinng · feednig
  • felling ← eflling · felilng · fellign · fellingg · fellinng · fellnig · ffelling · fleling

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "feeding" for "felling" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "feeding" is a verb and "felling" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "feeding" or "felling" show up more?
"feeding" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,448 in our English list, against #38,837 for "felling". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "feeding" and "felling". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "feeding" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "felling" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #241,465 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "feeding" and "felling" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "felling vs Fuelling". 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 #241,465 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