Which to use
“felling” is a noun and “filling” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #38,837
- “felling” frequency rank
- #5,221
- “filling” frequency rank
- 44058
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | felling | filling |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The act by which something is felled. | present participle and gerund of fill |
Letter map: felling vs filling
Shared letters muted; letters that set felling and filling apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.
Grammar separator: felling vs filling
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: felling is anoun and fillingaverb. On the page they differ by a single letter - e in “felling” becomes i in “filling”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44058, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
felling is recorded at frequency rank #38,837, classified as anoun. filling is at rank #5,221, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈfɪlɪŋ/.
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 44058, this pair ranks #234,082 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of felling vs filling
Shared letters: fgiln. Private to "felling": e. Private to "filling": -.
"felling" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "filling" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "felling" for "filling" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "felling" or "filling" show up more?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "felling" and "filling".
- Full dictionary entry for "felling" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "filling" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #234,082 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "felling" and "filling" 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 #234,082 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.