mullingvsMullinsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: mulling is a noun, Mullins is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mulling” is a noun and “Mullins” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,354
“mulling” frequency rank
#27,574
“Mullins” frequency rank
71928
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mulling Mullins
Definition The act of one who mulls or thinks over something. A surname.

Letter map: mulling vs Mullins

Shared letters muted; letters that set mulling and Mullins apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. mulling and Mullins follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
mulling
7 ch
Mullins

Role in the sentence - mulling and Mullins

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mulling is anoun and Mullinsaname. On the page they differ by a single letter - g in “mulling” becomes s in “Mullins”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71928, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mulling is recorded at frequency rank #44,354, classified as anoun. Mullins is at rank #27,574, tagged as aname, pronounced /ˈmʌlɪnz/.

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 71928, this pair ranks #44,870 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mulling vs Mullins

Shared letters: ilmnu. Private to "mulling": g. Private to "Mullins": s.

"mulling" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "Mullins" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mulling ← mluling · mmulling · mulilng · muling · mullign · mullingg · mullinng · mullnig
  • Mullins ← mlulins · mmullins · mulilns · mulins · mullinns · mullinss · mullisn · mullnis

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mulling" and "Mullins" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mulling" is a noun and "Mullins" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mulling" or "Mullins"?
"Mullins" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,574 in our English list, against #44,354 for "mulling". 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 "mulling" and "Mullins".

  • Full dictionary entry for "mulling" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Mullins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #44,870 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mulling" and "Mullins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mulling vs musing". 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 #44,870 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