likingvsloringConfusable pair

Quick tell: liking is a verb, loring is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“liking” is a verb and “loring” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,245
“liking” frequency rank
#49,468
“loring” frequency rank
56713
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature liking loring
Definition present participle and gerund of like Instructive discourse; instruction; teaching.

Letter map: liking vs loring

Shared letters muted; letters that set liking and loring apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. liking and loring follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
liking
6 ch
loring

Role in the sentence - liking and loring

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: liking is averb and loringanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56713, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

liking is recorded at frequency rank #7,245, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈlaɪkɪŋ/. loring is at rank #49,468, tagged as anoun.

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 56713, this pair ranks #124,258 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of liking vs loring

Shared letters: giln. Private to "liking": k. Private to "loring": or.

"liking" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "loring" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • liking ← ilking · liikng · likign · likingg · likinng · likking · liknig · lkiing
  • loring ← lloring · loirng · lorign · loringg · lorinng · lornig · lorring · lroing

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "liking" for "loring" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "liking" is a verb and "loring" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "liking" or "loring" show up more?
"liking" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,245 in our English list, against #49,468 for "loring". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "liking" and "loring".

  • Full dictionary entry for "liking" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "loring" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #124,258 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "liking" and "loring" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lacing 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 #124,258 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