Which to use
“lessen” is a verb and “Lessing” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #17,888
- “lessen” frequency rank
- #42,744
- “Lessing” frequency rank
- 60632
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lessen | Lessing |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To make less; to diminish; to reduce. | A surname from German. |
Letter map: lessen vs Lessing
Shared letters muted; letters that set lessen and Lessing apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.
Part-of-speech tell for lessen / Lessing
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lessen is averb and Lessinganame. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60632, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lessen is recorded at frequency rank #17,888, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈlɛsən/. 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 60632, this pair ranks #99,077 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lessen vs Lessing
Shared letters: elns. Private to "lessen": -. Private to "Lessing": gi.
"lessen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "Lessing" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lessen" for "Lessing" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "lessen" or "Lessing" show up more?
What to do next
You've compared "lessen" and "Lessing". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "lessen" 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 #99,077 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lessen" 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 #99,077 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.