grazingvsgrowingWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#15,180
“grazing” frequency rank
#1,223
“growing” frequency rank
16403
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature grazing growing
Definition present participle and gerund of graze present participle and gerund of grow

Where the eye mixes grazing and growing

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
grazing
7 ch
growing

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. grazing (/ˈɡɹeɪ.zɪŋ/) and growing (/ˈɡɹoʊɪŋ/) 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 16403, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

grazing is recorded at frequency rank #15,180, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈɡɹeɪ.zɪŋ/. growing is at rank #1,223, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈɡɹoʊɪŋ/.

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 16403, this pair ranks #457,933 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of grazing vs growing

Shared letters: ginr. Private to "grazing": az. Private to "growing": ow.

"grazing" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC  ·  "growing" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • grazinggarzing · ggrazing · graizng · grazign · grazingg · grazinng · graznig · grazzing
  • growingggrowing · gorwing · groiwng · growign · growingg · growinng · grownig · growwing

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "grazing" and "growing" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈɡɹeɪ.zɪŋ/ versus /ˈɡɹoʊɪŋ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "grazing" or "growing"?
"growing" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,223 in our English list, against #15,180 for "grazing". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list