Which to use
“felling” is a noun and “fouling” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #38,837
- “felling” frequency rank
- #32,811
- “fouling” frequency rank
- 71648
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | felling | fouling |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The act by which something is felled. | present participle and gerund of foul |
Letter map: felling vs fouling
Shared letters muted; letters that set felling and fouling apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. felling (CVCCVCC) and fouling (CVVCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Grammar separator: felling vs fouling
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: felling is anoun and foulingaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71648, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
felling is recorded at frequency rank #38,837, classified as anoun. fouling is at rank #32,811, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈfaʊlɪŋ/.
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 71648, this pair ranks #45,947 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of felling vs fouling
Shared letters: fgiln. Private to "felling": e. Private to "fouling": ou.
"felling" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "fouling" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "felling" and "fouling" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "felling" vs "fouling" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "felling" and "fouling".
- Full dictionary entry for "felling" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fouling" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #45,947 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "felling" and "fouling" 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 #45,947 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.