fellingvsfoldingWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#38,837
“felling” frequency rank
#11,213
“folding” frequency rank
50050
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature felling folding
Definition The act by which something is felled. Designed to fold

Letter map: felling vs folding

Shared letters muted; letters that set felling and folding apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

7 ch
felling
7 ch
folding

Grammar separator: felling vs folding

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: felling is anoun and foldinganadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50050, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

felling is recorded at frequency rank #38,837, classified as anoun. folding is at rank #11,213, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈfəʊldɪŋ/.

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 50050, this pair ranks #177,832 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of felling vs folding

Shared letters: fgiln. Private to "felling": e. Private to "folding": do.

"felling" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "folding" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fellingeflling · felilng · fellign · fellingg · fellinng · fellnig · ffelling · fleling
  • foldingffolding · fodling · foldding · foldign · foldingg · foldinng · foldnig · folidng

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "felling" and "folding" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "felling" is a noun and "folding" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "felling" or "folding" show up more?
"folding" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,213 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.

After this comparison

Pair "felling" vs "folding" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "felling" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "folding" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #177,832 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "felling" and "folding" 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 #177,832 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