mockingvsmooringWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: mocking is a verb, mooring is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mocking” is a verb and “mooring” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,962
“mocking” frequency rank
#35,415
“mooring” frequency rank
49377
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mocking mooring
Definition present participle and gerund of mock A place to moor a vessel.

Letter map: mocking vs mooring

Shared letters muted; letters that set mocking and mooring apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. mocking (CVCCVCC) and mooring (CVVCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
mocking
7 ch
mooring

Role in the sentence - mocking and mooring

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mocking is averb and mooringanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49377, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mocking is recorded at frequency rank #13,962, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈmɑkɪŋ/. mooring is at rank #35,415, 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 49377, this pair ranks #184,216 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mocking vs mooring

Shared letters: gimno. Private to "mocking": ck. Private to "mooring": r.

"mocking" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "mooring" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mocking ← mcoking · mmocking · moccking · mocikng · mockign · mockingg · mockinng · mockking
  • mooring ← mmooring · mooirng · moorign · mooringg · moorinng · moornig · moorring · moring

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mocking" for "mooring" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mocking" is a verb and "mooring" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mocking" vs "mooring" - which ranks higher?
"mocking" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,962 in our English list, against #35,415 for "mooring". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "mocking" and "mooring".

  • Full dictionary entry for "mocking" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mooring" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #184,216 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mocking" and "mooring" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mooring vs Morin". 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 #184,216 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