meltingvsmendingWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: melting is a adjective, mending is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“melting” is an adjective and “mending” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,631
“melting” frequency rank
#32,078
“mending” frequency rank
41709
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature melting mending
Definition Which is melting, dissolving or liquefying. The act by which something is mended or repaired.

Letter map: melting vs mending

Shared letters muted; letters that set melting and mending apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

7 ch
melting
7 ch
mending

Grammar separator: melting vs mending

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: melting is anadjective and mendinganoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41709, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

melting is recorded at frequency rank #9,631, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈmɛltɪŋ/. mending is at rank #32,078, tagged as anoun.

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 41709, this pair ranks #255,802 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of melting vs mending

Shared letters: egimn. Private to "melting": lt. Private to "mending": d.

"melting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "mending" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • meltingemlting · melitng · mellting · meltign · meltingg · meltinng · meltnig · meltting
  • mendingemnding · medning · mendding · mendign · mendingg · mendinng · mendnig · menidng

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "melting" and "mending" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "melting" is an adjective and "mending" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "melting" or "mending" show up more?
"melting" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,631 in our English list, against #32,078 for "mending". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "melting" vs "mending" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "melting" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mending" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #255,802 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "melting" and "mending" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mending vs minding". 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 #255,802 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list