hinting vs honing, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#25,410
“hinting” frequency rank: #37,493
“honing” frequency rank: 62903
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	hinting	honing
Definition	The act of giving a hint or suggestion.	present participle and gerund of hone

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set hinting and honing apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch

hinting

6 ch

honing

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hinting is /ˈhɪntɪŋ/ while honing is /ˈhoʊnɪŋ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62903, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hinting is recorded at frequency rank #25,410, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈhɪntɪŋ/. honing is at rank #37,493, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈhoʊnɪŋ/.

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 62903, this pair ranks #85,943 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hinting vs honing

Shared letters: ghin. Private to "hinting": t. Private to "honing": o.

"hinting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "honing" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

hinting ← hhinting · hinitng · hinnting · hintign · hintingg · hintinng · hintnig · hintting
honing ← hhoning · hnoing · hoinng · honign · honingg · honinng · honnig · honning

Frequency comparison

hinting#25,410

honing#37,493

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hinting" and "honing" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hinting" is a noun and "honing" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "hinting" or "honing"?

"hinting" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,410 in our English list, against #37,493 for "honing". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering hinting vs honing

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “hinting”; for a verb, it's “honing”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “hinting” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable