hatingvshauntingTell them apart

Which to use

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

#9,051
“hating” frequency rank
#14,557
“haunting” frequency rank
23608
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hating haunting
Definition present participle and gerund of hate present participle and gerund of haunt

Letter map: hating vs haunting

Shared letters muted; letters that set hating and haunting apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.

6 ch
hating
8 ch
haunting

Corpus notes: hating and haunting

hating and haunting are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23608, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hating is recorded at frequency rank #9,051, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈheɪtɪŋ/. haunting is at rank #14,557, tagged as averb.

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 23608, this pair ranks #408,068 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hating vs haunting

Shared letters: aghint. Private to "hating": -. Private to "haunting": u.

"hating" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "haunting" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hatingahting · haitng · hatign · hatingg · hatinng · hatnig · hatting · hhating
  • hauntingahunting · hanuting · haunitng · haunnting · hauntign · hauntingg · hauntinng · hauntnig

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hating" and "haunting" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "hating" vs "haunting" - which ranks higher?
"hating" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,051 in our English list, against #14,557 for "haunting". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "hating" vs "haunting" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hating" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "haunting" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #408,068 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hating" and "haunting" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hating vs hing". 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 #408,068 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