Which to use
“filling” and “fisting” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,221
- “filling” frequency rank
- #44,784
- “fisting” frequency rank
- 50005
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | filling | fisting |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of fill | present participle and gerund of fist |
Where the eye mixes filling and fisting
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. filling and fisting follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses filling with fisting
A purely visual mix-up. filling (/ˈfɪlɪŋ/) and fisting (/ˈfɪstɪŋ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50005, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
filling is recorded at frequency rank #5,221, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈfɪlɪŋ/. fisting is at rank #44,784, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈfɪstɪŋ/.
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 50005, this pair ranks #178,226 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of filling vs fisting
Shared letters: fgin. Private to "filling": l. Private to "fisting": st.
"filling" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "fisting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "filling" and "fisting" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "filling" or "fisting" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "filling" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fisting" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #178,226 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "filling" and "fisting" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fisting vs fussing". 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 #178,226 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.