hedgingvshemmingTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#30,444
“hedging” frequency rank
#48,277
“hemming” frequency rank
78721
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hedging hemming
Definition present participle and gerund of hedge The act of saying "hem", in intermission or hesitation of speech.

Letter map: hedging vs hemming

Shared letters muted; letters that set hedging and hemming apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

7 ch
hedging
7 ch
hemming

Part-of-speech tell for hedging / hemming

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: hedging is averb and hemminganoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78721, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hedging is recorded at frequency rank #30,444, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈhɛd͡ʒɪŋ/. hemming is at rank #48,277, tagged as anoun.

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 78721, this pair ranks #23,925 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hedging vs hemming

Shared letters: eghin. Private to "hedging": d. Private to "hemming": m.

"hedging" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "hemming" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hedgingehdging · hdeging · heddging · hedgging · hedgign · hedgingg · hedginng · hedgnig
  • hemmingehmming · hemimng · heming · hemmign · hemmingg · hemminng · hemmnig · hhemming

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hedging" and "hemming" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hedging" is a verb and "hemming" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "hedging" or "hemming" show up more?
"hedging" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,444 in our English list, against #48,277 for "hemming". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "hedging" and "hemming". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hedging" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hemming" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #23,925 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hedging" and "hemming" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "heaping vs hemming". 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 #23,925 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