Which to use
“impending” is an adjective and “intending” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #14,341
- “impending” frequency rank
- #15,197
- “intending” frequency rank
- 29538
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | impending | intending |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Approaching; drawing near; about to happen or expected to happen. | The process by which one intends something; intention. |
Letter map: impending vs intending
Shared letters muted; letters that set impending and intending apart highlighted. Shared run: 7. impending and intending follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Role in the sentence - impending and intending
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: impending is anadjective and intendinganoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29538, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
impending is recorded at frequency rank #14,341, classified as anadj, pronounced /ɪmˈpɛndɪŋ/. intending is at rank #15,197, 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 29538, this pair ranks #362,142 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of impending vs intending
Shared letters: degin. Private to "impending": mp. Private to "intending": t.
"impending" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCC · "intending" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "impending" for "intending" ever safe?
Which is more common, "impending" or "intending"?
After this comparison
You've compared "impending" and "intending". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "impending" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "intending" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #362,142 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "impending" and "intending" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "intending vs intruding". 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 #362,142 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.