Which to use
“looking” and “losing” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #242
- “looking” frequency rank
- #1,487
- “losing” frequency rank
- 1729
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | looking | losing |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of look | present participle and gerund of lose |
Where the eye mixes looking and losing
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses looking with losing
A purely visual mix-up. looking (/ˈlʊkɪŋ/) and losing (/ˈluːzɪŋ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1729, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
looking is recorded at frequency rank #242, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈlʊkɪŋ/. losing is at rank #1,487, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈluːzɪŋ/.
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 1729, this pair ranks #526,793 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of looking vs losing
Shared letters: gilno. Private to "looking": k. Private to "losing": s.
"looking" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC · "losing" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "looking" and "losing" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "looking" or "losing"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "looking" and "losing" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "looking" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "losing" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #526,793 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "looking" and "losing" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "loring vs losing". 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 #526,793 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.