Which to use
“parting” is a noun and “punting” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #17,918
- “parting” frequency rank
- #42,354
- “punting” frequency rank
- 60272
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | parting | punting |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The act of parting or dividing; division; separation. | present participle and gerund of punt |
Where the eye mixes parting and punting
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. parting and punting follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between parting and punting
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: parting is /ˈpɑɹtɪŋ/ while punting is /ˈpʌntɪŋ/. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60272, 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/. punting is at rank #42,354, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈpʌntɪŋ/.
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 60272, this pair ranks #101,145 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of parting vs punting
Shared letters: ginpt. Private to "parting": ar. Private to "punting": u.
"parting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "punting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "parting" for "punting" ever safe?
Frequency check: "parting" vs "punting" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "parting" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "punting" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #101,145 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "parting" and "punting" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pinging vs punting". 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 #101,145 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.