Which to use
“parting” is a noun and “paying” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #17,918
- “parting” frequency rank
- #1,834
- “paying” frequency rank
- 19752
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | parting | paying |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The act of parting or dividing; division; separation. | present participle and gerund of pay |
Where the eye mixes parting and paying
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: parting is /ˈpɑɹtɪŋ/ while paying is /ˈpeɪ.ɪŋ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19752, 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/. paying is at rank #1,834, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈpeɪ.ɪŋ/.
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 19752, this pair ranks #435,981 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of parting vs paying
Shared letters: aginp. Private to "parting": rt. Private to "paying": y.
"parting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "paying" · 6 letters · shape CVVVCC