felinevsfellingWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#24,749
“feline” frequency rank
#38,837
“felling” frequency rank
63586
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature feline felling
Definition Of or pertaining to cats. The act by which something is felled.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set feline and felling apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
feline
7 ch
felling

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: feline is anadjective and fellinganoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63586, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

feline is recorded at frequency rank #24,749, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈfiːlaɪn/. 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 63586, this pair ranks #82,146 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of feline vs felling

Shared letters: efiln. Private to "feline": -. Private to "felling": g.

"feline" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "felling" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • felineefline · feilne · felien · felinne · felline · felnie · ffeline · fleine
  • fellingeflling · felilng · fellign · fellingg · fellinng · fellnig · ffelling · fleling

Frequency comparison

feline#24,749
felling#38,837

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "feline" and "felling" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "feline" is an adjective and "felling" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "feline" or "felling"?
"feline" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,749 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.

Remembering feline vs felling

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “feline”; for a noun, it's “felling”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “feline” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list