Which to use
“making” is a noun and “mocking” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #264
- “making” frequency rank
- #13,962
- “mocking” frequency rank
- 14226
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | making | mocking |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The act of forming, causing, or constituting; workmanship; construction. | present participle and gerund of mock |
Where the eye mixes making and mocking
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: making vs mocking
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: making is /ˈmeɪkɪŋ/ while mocking is /ˈmɑkɪŋ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14226, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
making is recorded at frequency rank #264, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmeɪkɪŋ/. mocking is at rank #13,962, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈmɑkɪŋ/.
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 14226, this pair ranks #471,293 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of making vs mocking
Shared letters: gikmn. Private to "making": a. Private to "mocking": co.
"making" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "mocking" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "making" and "mocking" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "making" or "mocking" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "making" and "mocking" 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 "mocking" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #471,293 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "making" and "mocking" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mocking vs mockingly". 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 #471,293 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.