latchingvsloathingTell them apart

Quick tell: latching is a adjective, loathing is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“latching” is an adjective and “loathing” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,456
“latching” frequency rank
#23,589
“loathing” frequency rank
73045
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature latching loathing
Definition That latches. Sense of revulsion, distaste, detestation, extreme hatred or dislike.

Letter map: latching vs loathing

Shared letters muted; letters that set latching and loathing apart highlighted. Shared run: 7.

8 ch
latching
8 ch
loathing

Role in the sentence - latching and loathing

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: latching is anadjective and loathinganoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73045, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

latching is recorded at frequency rank #49,456, classified as anadj. loathing is at rank #23,589, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈləʊðɪŋ/.

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 73045, this pair ranks #40,921 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of latching vs loathing

Shared letters: aghilnt. Private to "latching": c. Private to "loathing": o.

"latching" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCC  ·  "loathing" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • latchingaltching · lacthing · latcching · latchhing · latchign · latchingg · latchinng · latchnig
  • loathinglaothing · lloathing · loahting · loathhing · loathign · loathingg · loathinng · loathnig

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "latching" for "loathing" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "latching" is an adjective and "loathing" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "latching" vs "loathing" - which ranks higher?
"loathing" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,589 in our English list, against #49,456 for "latching". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "latching" and "loathing". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "latching" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "loathing" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,921 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "latching" and "loathing" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lacing vs latching". 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 #40,921 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