# locking vs looking

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### locking
*noun · frequency rank #10,231*
gerund of lock: the act by which something is locked.

### looking
*verb · IPA /ˈlʊkɪŋ/ · frequency rank #242*
present participle and gerund of look

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