floodingvsflowingWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“flooding” and “flowing” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#7,445
“flooding” frequency rank
#6,907
“flowing” frequency rank
14352
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature flooding flowing
Definition present participle and gerund of flood present participle and gerund of flow

Where the eye mixes flooding and flowing

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
flooding
7 ch
flowing

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. flooding (/ˈflʌdɪŋ/) and flowing (/ˈfloʊ.ɪŋ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14352, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

flooding is recorded at frequency rank #7,445, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈflʌdɪŋ/. flowing is at rank #6,907, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈfloʊ.ɪŋ/.

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 14352, this pair ranks #470,545 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of flooding vs flowing

Shared letters: fgilno. Private to "flooding": d. Private to "flowing": w.

"flooding" · 8 letters · shape CCVVCVCC  ·  "flowing" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • floodingfflooding · fllooding · floding · flodoing · floodding · floodign · floodingg · floodinng
  • flowingfflowing · fllowing · floiwng · flowign · flowingg · flowinng · flownig · flowwing

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "flooding" and "flowing" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈflʌdɪŋ/ versus /ˈfloʊ.ɪŋ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "flooding" or "flowing"?
"flowing" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,907 in our English list, against #7,445 for "flooding". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list