# laying vs lying

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### laying
*verb · IPA /ˈleɪ.ɪŋ/ · frequency rank #5,514*
present participle and gerund of lay

### lying
*verb · IPA /ˈlaɪ.ɪŋ/ · frequency rank #2,164*
present participle and gerund of lie (“to rest in a horizontal position”)

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/laying-vs-lying