Which to use
“hinting” and “hurting” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #25,410
- “hinting” frequency rank
- #5,974
- “hurting” frequency rank
- 31384
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hinting | hurting |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The act of giving a hint or suggestion. | A sensation that hurts. |
Letter map: hinting vs hurting
Shared letters muted; letters that set hinting and hurting apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. hinting and hurting follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Corpus notes: hinting and hurting
hinting and hurting 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31384, 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/. hurting is at rank #5,974, 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 31384, this pair ranks #346,616 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hinting vs hurting
Shared letters: ghint. Private to "hinting": -. Private to "hurting": ru.
"hinting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "hurting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "hinting" and "hurting" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "hinting" or "hurting" show up more?
What to do next
You've compared "hinting" and "hurting". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "hinting" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hurting" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #346,616 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hinting" and "hurting" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hinting vs hoisting". 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 #346,616 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.