mountingvsmouthingWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#8,832
“mounting” frequency rank
#37,580
“mouthing” frequency rank
46412
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mounting mouthing
Definition That continues to mount; steadily rising or accumulating. The act of forming a shape with the mouth, especially as part of sign language.

Letter map: mounting vs mouthing

Shared letters muted; letters that set mounting and mouthing apart highlighted. Shared run: 7.

8 ch
mounting
8 ch
mouthing

Role in the sentence - mounting and mouthing

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mounting is anadjective and mouthinganoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46412, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mounting is recorded at frequency rank #8,832, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈmaʊntɪŋ/. mouthing is at rank #37,580, 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 46412, this pair ranks #211,981 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mounting vs mouthing

Shared letters: gimnotu. Private to "mounting": -. Private to "mouthing": h.

"mounting" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC  ·  "mouthing" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mountingmmounting · monuting · mounitng · mounnting · mountign · mountingg · mountinng · mountnig
  • mouthingmmouthing · motuhing · mouhting · mouthhing · mouthign · mouthingg · mouthinng · mouthnig

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mounting" for "mouthing" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mounting" is an adjective and "mouthing" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mounting" vs "mouthing" - which ranks higher?
"mounting" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,832 in our English list, against #37,580 for "mouthing". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "mounting" and "mouthing". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mounting" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mouthing" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #211,981 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mounting" and "mouthing" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moulding vs mouthing". 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 #211,981 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