gunningvsguttingTell them apart

Quick tell: gunning is a noun, gutting is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“gunning” is a noun and “gutting” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,103
“gunning” frequency rank
#39,836
“gutting” frequency rank
65939
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gunning gutting
Definition The act of firing a gun. present participle and gerund of gut

Letter map: gunning vs gutting

Shared letters muted; letters that set gunning and gutting apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. gunning and gutting follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
gunning
7 ch
gutting

Grammar separator: gunning vs gutting

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: gunning is anoun and guttingaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65939, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gunning is recorded at frequency rank #26,103, classified as anoun. gutting is at rank #39,836, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈɡʌtɪŋ/.

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 65939, this pair ranks #70,350 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of gunning vs gutting

Shared letters: ginu. Private to "gunning": -. Private to "gutting": t.

"gunning" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "gutting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gunning ← ggunning · gnuning · guning · guninng · gunnign · gunningg · gunninng · gunnnig
  • gutting ← ggutting · gtuting · guting · gutitng · guttign · guttingg · guttinng · guttnig

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "gunning" and "gutting" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gunning" is a noun and "gutting" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "gunning" or "gutting"?
"gunning" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,103 in our English list, against #39,836 for "gutting". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "gunning" vs "gutting" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gunning" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gutting" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #70,350 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gunning" and "gutting" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gusting vs gutting". 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 #70,350 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