listingvslootingTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#4,171
“listing” frequency rank
#15,856
“looting” frequency rank
20027
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature listing looting
Definition As listed or shown on a listing. The act of stealing during a crisis such as a war, riot or natural disaster, when law enforcement is ineffective or absent.

Letter map: listing vs looting

Shared letters muted; letters that set listing and looting apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. listing (CVCCVCC) and looting (CVVCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
listing
7 ch
looting

Role in the sentence - listing and looting

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: listing is anadjective and lootinganoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20027, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

listing is recorded at frequency rank #4,171, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈlɪstɪŋ/. looting is at rank #15,856, 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 20027, this pair ranks #434,028 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of listing vs looting

Shared letters: gilnt. Private to "listing": s. Private to "looting": o.

"listing" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "looting" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • listing ← ilsting · lisitng · lissting · listign · listingg · listinng · listnig · listting
  • looting ← llooting · looitng · lootign · lootingg · lootinng · lootnig · lootting · loting

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "listing" for "looting" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "listing" is an adjective and "looting" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "listing" or "looting" show up more?
"listing" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,171 in our English list, against #15,856 for "looting". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "listing" and "looting".

  • Full dictionary entry for "listing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "looting" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #434,028 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "listing" and "looting" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "looting 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 #434,028 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