Which to use
“offend” is a verb and “offing” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #13,571
- “offend” frequency rank
- #46,667
- “offing” frequency rank
- 60238
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | offend | offing |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To hurt the feelings of; to displease; to make angry; to insult. | The area of the sea in which a ship can be seen in the distance from land, excluding the parts nearest the shore, and beyond the anchoring ground. |
Where the eye mixes offend and offing
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: offend vs offing
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: offend is /əˈfɛnd/ while offing is /ˈɒfɪŋ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60238, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
offend is recorded at frequency rank #13,571, classified as averb, pronounced /əˈfɛnd/. offing is at rank #46,667, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɒfɪŋ/.
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 60238, this pair ranks #101,410 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of offend vs offing
Shared letters: fno. Private to "offend": de. Private to "offing": gi.
"offend" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC · "offing" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "offend" for "offing" ever safe?
Which is more common, "offend" or "offing"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "offend" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "offing" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #101,410 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "offend" and "offing" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "offing vs oozing". 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 #101,410 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.