Which to use
“making” and “mining” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #264
- “making” frequency rank
- #2,688
- “mining” frequency rank
- 2952
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | making | mining |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The act of forming, causing, or constituting; workmanship; construction. | The activity of removing valuable resources (often minerals) from the earth. |
Where the eye mixes making and mining
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses making with mining
A purely visual mix-up. making (/ˈmeɪkɪŋ/) and mining (/ˈmaɪnɪŋ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2952, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
making is recorded at frequency rank #264, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmeɪkɪŋ/. mining is at rank #2,688, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmaɪnɪŋ/.
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 2952, this pair ranks #523,553 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of making vs mining
Shared letters: gimn. Private to "making": ak. Private to "mining": -.
"making" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "mining" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "making" and "mining" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "making" or "mining"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "making" and "mining" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "making" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mining" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #523,553 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "making" and "mining" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mining vs Minna". 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 #523,553 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.