meteringvsmutteringWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“metering” and “muttering” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#32,921
“metering” frequency rank
#30,892
“muttering” frequency rank
63813
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature metering muttering
Definition The act of using a meter for measurement. Something that is muttered.

Letter map: metering vs muttering

Shared letters muted; letters that set metering and muttering apart highlighted. Shared run: 7.

8 ch
metering
9 ch
muttering

Corpus notes: metering and muttering

metering and muttering are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63813, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

metering is recorded at frequency rank #32,921, classified as anoun. muttering is at rank #30,892, 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 63813, this pair ranks #80,949 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of metering vs muttering

Shared letters: egimnrt. Private to "metering": -. Private to "muttering": u.

"metering" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC  ·  "muttering" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • meteringemtering · meetring · meteirng · meterign · meteringg · meterinng · meternig · meterring
  • mutteringmmuttering · mtutering · mutering · mutetring · mutteirng · mutterign · mutteringg · mutterinng

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "metering" and "muttering" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary English text, does "metering" or "muttering" show up more?
"muttering" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,892 in our English list, against #32,921 for "metering". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "metering" and "muttering".

  • Full dictionary entry for "metering" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "muttering" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #80,949 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "metering" and "muttering" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "metering vs mothering". 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 #80,949 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