murderingvsmurmuringWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#10,892
“murdering” frequency rank
#38,984
“murmuring” frequency rank
49876
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature murdering murmuring
Definition The act of committing murder. present participle and gerund of murmur

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set murdering and murmuring apart are highlighted. They share 7 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

9 ch
murdering
9 ch
murmuring

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: murdering is anoun and murmuringaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49876, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

murdering is recorded at frequency rank #10,892, classified as anoun. murmuring is at rank #38,984, tagged as averb.

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 49876, this pair ranks #179,462 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of murdering vs murmuring

Shared letters: gimnru. Private to "murdering": de. Private to "murmuring": -.

"murdering" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC  ·  "murmuring" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • murderingmmurdering · mrudering · mudrering · murddering · murdeirng · murderign · murderingg · murderinng
  • murmuringmmurmuring · mrumuring · mumruring · murmmuring · murmruing · murmuirng · murmurign · murmuringg

Frequency comparison

murdering#10,892
murmuring#38,984

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "murdering" and "murmuring" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "murdering" is a noun and "murmuring" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "murdering" or "murmuring"?
"murdering" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,892 in our English list, against #38,984 for "murmuring". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering murdering vs murmuring

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “murdering”; for a verb, it's “murmuring”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “murdering” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list