Which to use
“imitating” is a verb and “irritating” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,406
- “imitating” frequency rank
- #12,798
- “irritating” frequency rank
- 35204
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | imitating | irritating |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of imitate | Causing irritation, annoyance or pain. |
Letter map: imitating vs irritating
Shared letters muted; letters that set imitating and irritating apart highlighted. Shared run: 8. imitating runs 9 letters (VCVCVCVCC) against irritating's 10 (VCCVCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - imitating and irritating
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: imitating is averb and irritatinganadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35204, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
imitating is recorded at frequency rank #22,406, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈɪməteɪtɪŋ/. irritating is at rank #12,798, tagged as anadj.
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 35204, this pair ranks #314,007 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of imitating vs irritating
Shared letters: agint. Private to "imitating": m. Private to "irritating": r.
"imitating" · 9 letters · shape VCVCVCVCC · "irritating" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- imitating ← iimtating · imiatting · imitaitng · imitatign · imitatingg · imitatinng · imitatnig · imitatting
- irritating ← irirtating · iritating · irriatting · irritaitng · irritatign · irritatingg · irritatinng · irritatnig
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "imitating" and "irritating" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "imitating" or "irritating" show up more?
What to do next
You've compared "imitating" and "irritating". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "imitating" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "irritating" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #314,007 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "imitating" and "irritating" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "imitating vs imitation". 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 #314,007 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.