Molding or moulding?
molding is a noun meaning “The act or process of shaping in or on a mold, or of making molds; the art or…”; moulding is a noun meaning “Alternative spelling of molding”. Wiktionary gives them as spellings of the same word. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) molding is about 2.1 times as common as moulding.
What is the difference between molding and moulding?
| molding | moulding | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | noun, verb |
| Meaning | USThe act or process of shaping in or on a mold, or of making molds; the art or occupation of a molder USAnything cast in a mold, or which appears to be so, as grooved or ornamental bars of wood or metal | UKAlternative spelling of molding |
| Example | none recorded | none recorded |
| Forms | moldings | mouldings |
| Pronunciation | /ˈməʊl.dɪŋ/ /ˈmoʊl.dɪŋ/ | not recorded |
| In writing | 1.5 times per million words | about once in every 1 million words |
Sources: molding and moulding in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of molding and moulding
molding
- 1
USThe act or process of shaping in or on a mold, or of making molds; the art or occupation of a molder
- 2
USAnything cast in a mold, or which appears to be so, as grooved or ornamental bars of wood or metal
- 3
USA plane, or curved, narrow surface, either sunk or projecting, used for decoration by means of the lights and shades upon its surface and to conceal joints, especially between unlike materials
- 4
USA planing machine for making moldings
- 5
USA machine to assist in making molds for castings
- 6
USA mill for shaping timber
- 7
USA kind of sand containing clay, used in making molds
moulding
- 1
UKAlternative spelling of molding
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, molding or moulding?
molding appears 1.5 times per million words; moulding about once in every 1 million words.
molding 1.5 times per million wordsmoulding about once in every 1 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search molding vs moulding?
“molding vs moulding” is searched about 1,600 times a month on Google and 80 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“moulding vs molding”, “molding or moulding”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.