Which to use
“parting” and “patting” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,918
- “parting” frequency rank
- #32,530
- “patting” frequency rank
- 50448
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | parting | patting |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The act of parting or dividing; division; separation. | The act by which something is patted. |
Where the eye mixes parting and patting
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. parting and patting follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses parting with patting
A purely visual mix-up. parting (/ˈpɑɹtɪŋ/) and patting (/ˈpætɪŋ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - r in “parting” becomes t in “patting”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50448, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
parting is recorded at frequency rank #17,918, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɑɹtɪŋ/. patting is at rank #32,530, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpætɪŋ/.
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 50448, this pair ranks #174,171 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of parting vs patting
Shared letters: aginpt. Private to "parting": r. Private to "patting": -.
"parting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "patting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "parting" for "patting" ever safe?
Frequency check: "parting" vs "patting" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "parting" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "patting" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #174,171 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "parting" and "patting" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "patting vs porting". 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 #174,171 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.