Which to use
“having” and “hiring” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #233
- “having” frequency rank
- #4,861
- “hiring” frequency rank
- 5094
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | having | hiring |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of have | present participle and gerund of hire |
Where the eye mixes having and hiring
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: having vs hiring
A purely visual mix-up. having (/ˈhævɪŋ/) and hiring (/haɪə.ɹɪŋ/) 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 5094, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
having is recorded at frequency rank #233, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈhævɪŋ/. hiring is at rank #4,861, tagged as averb, pronounced /haɪə.ɹɪŋ/.
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 5094, this pair ranks #516,616 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of having vs hiring
Shared letters: ghin. Private to "having": av. Private to "hiring": r.
"having" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "hiring" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "having" for "hiring" ever safe?
Frequency check: "having" vs "hiring" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "having" and "hiring" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "having" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hiring" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #516,616 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "having" and "hiring" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hing vs hiring". 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 #516,616 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.