inningvsironingWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“inning” and “ironing” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#9,195
“inning” frequency rank
#25,429
“ironing” frequency rank
34624
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature inning ironing
Definition A period of play in which members of a visiting baseball team attempt to hit a baseball pitched by the opposing home team until three players are called out, followed by a similar attempt by members of the home baseball team against the visiting team's pitching. There are nine or more innings in a regulation baseball game. The act of pressing clothes with an iron, such as a steam iron.

Where the spellings diverge

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

6 ch
inning
7 ch
ironing

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

inning and ironing 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34624, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

inning is recorded at frequency rank #9,195, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɪnɪŋ/. ironing is at rank #25,429, 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 34624, this pair ranks #319,170 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of inning vs ironing

Shared letters: gin. Private to "inning": -. Private to "ironing": or.

"inning" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC  ·  "ironing" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • inningining · ininng · innign · inningg · inninng · innnig · nining
  • ironingiorning · irnoing · iroinng · ironign · ironingg · ironinng · ironnig · ironning

Frequency comparison

inning#9,195
ironing#25,429

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "inning" and "ironing" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "inning" or "ironing"?
"inning" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,195 in our English list, against #25,429 for "ironing". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering inning vs ironing

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “inning” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list