Which to use
“lending” is a noun and “longing” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,685
- “lending” frequency rank
- #14,989
- “longing” frequency rank
- 23674
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lending | longing |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The action of, or an instance of the action of the verb to lend. | present participle and gerund of long |
Letter map: lending vs longing
Shared letters muted; letters that set lending and longing apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. lending and longing follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Role in the sentence - lending and longing
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lending is anoun and longingaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23674, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lending is recorded at frequency rank #8,685, classified as anoun. longing is at rank #14,989, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈlɒŋɪŋ/.
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 23674, this pair ranks #407,577 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of lending vs longing
Shared letters: giln. Private to "lending": de. Private to "longing": o.
"lending" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "longing" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lending" for "longing" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "lending" or "longing" show up more?
After this comparison
Pair "lending" vs "longing" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "lending" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "longing" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #407,577 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lending" and "longing" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "longing 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 #407,577 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.