# longing vs looming

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### longing
*verb · IPA /ˈlɒŋɪŋ/ · frequency rank #14,989*
present participle and gerund of long

### looming
*noun · IPA /ˈluːmɪŋ/ · frequency rank #19,887*
gerund of loom: the condition of something that looms or towers.

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