hatingvshidingWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#9,051
“hating” frequency rank
#4,161
“hiding” frequency rank
13212
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hating hiding
Definition present participle and gerund of hate present participle and gerund of hide

Where the eye mixes hating and hiding

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
hating
6 ch
hiding

Look-alike desk: hating vs hiding

A purely visual mix-up. hating (/ˈheɪtɪŋ/) and hiding (/ˈhaɪdɪŋ/) 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 13212, 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/. hiding is at rank #4,161, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈhaɪdɪŋ/.

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 13212, this pair ranks #477,120 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hating vs hiding

Shared letters: ghin. Private to "hating": at. Private to "hiding": d.

"hating" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "hiding" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hatingahting · haitng · hatign · hatingg · hatinng · hatnig · hatting · hhating
  • hidinghdiing · hhiding · hidding · hidign · hidingg · hidinng · hidnig · hiidng

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hating" and "hiding" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈheɪtɪŋ/ versus /ˈhaɪdɪŋ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "hating" or "hiding" show up more?
"hiding" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,161 in our English list, against #9,051 for "hating". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hating" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hiding" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #477,120 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hating" and "hiding" 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 #477,120 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