Which to use
“lacking” is a verb and “locking” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,260
- “lacking” frequency rank
- #10,231
- “locking” frequency rank
- 16491
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lacking | locking |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of lack | gerund of lock: the act by which something is locked. |
Letter map: lacking vs locking
Shared letters muted; letters that set lacking and locking apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.
Role in the sentence - lacking and locking
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lacking is averb and lockinganoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - a in “lacking” becomes o in “locking”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16491, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lacking is recorded at frequency rank #6,260, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈlækɪŋ/. locking is at rank #10,231, 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 16491, this pair ranks #457,406 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of lacking vs locking
Shared letters: cgikln. Private to "lacking": a. Private to "locking": o.
"lacking" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "locking" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "lacking" and "locking" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "lacking" or "locking" show up more?
What to do next
Pair "lacking" vs "locking" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "lacking" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "locking" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #457,406 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lacking" and "locking" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "locking vs loring". 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 #457,406 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.