lastingvsLessingWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: lasting is a adjective, Lessing is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lasting” is an adjective and “Lessing” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,979
“lasting” frequency rank
#42,744
“Lessing” frequency rank
48723
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lasting Lessing
Definition Persisting for an extended period of time. A surname from German.

Letter map: lasting vs Lessing

Shared letters muted; letters that set lasting and Lessing apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

7 ch
lasting
7 ch
Lessing

Part-of-speech tell for lasting / Lessing

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lasting is anadjective and Lessinganame. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48723, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lasting is recorded at frequency rank #5,979, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈlɑːstɪŋ/. Lessing is at rank #42,744, tagged as aname.

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 48723, this pair ranks #190,364 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lasting vs Lessing

Shared letters: gilns. Private to "lasting": at. Private to "Lessing": e.

"lasting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "Lessing" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lastingalsting · lasitng · lassting · lastign · lastingg · lastinng · lastnig · lastting
  • Lessingelssing · lesing · lesisng · lessign · lessingg · lessinng · lessnig · llessing

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lasting" for "Lessing" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lasting" is an adjective and "Lessing" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "lasting" or "Lessing" show up more?
"lasting" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,979 in our English list, against #42,744 for "Lessing". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "lasting" vs "Lessing" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lasting" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Lessing" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #190,364 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lasting" and "Lessing" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lashing vs Lessing". 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 #190,364 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