interruptingvsinterruptionWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: interrupting is a verb, interruption is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#20,143
“interrupting” frequency rank
#18,111
“interruption” frequency rank
38254
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature interrupting interruption
Definition present participle and gerund of interrupt The act of interrupting, or the state of being interrupted.

Letter map: interrupting vs interruption

Shared letters muted; letters that set interrupting and interruption apart highlighted. Shared run: 11.

12 ch
interrupting
12 ch
interruption

Part-of-speech tell for interrupting / interruption

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: interrupting is averb and interruptionanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38254, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

interrupting is recorded at frequency rank #20,143, classified as averb. interruption is at rank #18,111, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˌɪntəˈɹʌpʃən/.

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 38254, this pair ranks #287,569 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of interrupting vs interruption

Shared letters: einprtu. Private to "interrupting": g. Private to "interruption": o.

"interrupting" · 12 letters · shape VCCVCCVCCVCC  ·  "interruption" · 12 letters · shape VCCVCCVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • interruptinginetrrupting · innterrupting · interrputing · interrupitng · interruppting · interruptign · interruptingg · interruptinng
  • interruptioninetrruption · innterruption · interrpution · interrupiton · interrupption · interrupsion · interruptino · interruptionn

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "interrupting" and "interruption" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "interrupting" is a verb and "interruption" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "interrupting" or "interruption" show up more?
"interruption" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,111 in our English list, against #20,143 for "interrupting". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "interrupting" vs "interruption" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "interrupting" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "interruption" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #287,569 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "interrupting" and "interruption" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "interception vs interruption". 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 #287,569 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list