partingvsputtingWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#17,918
“parting” frequency rank
#1,465
“putting” frequency rank
19383
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature parting putting
Definition The act of parting or dividing; division; separation. present participle and gerund of put

Where the eye mixes parting and putting

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
parting
7 ch
putting

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: parting is /ˈpɑɹtɪŋ/ while putting is /ˈpʊtɪŋ/. 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 19383, 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/. putting is at rank #1,465, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈpʊtɪŋ/.

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 19383, this pair ranks #438,574 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of parting vs putting

Shared letters: ginpt. Private to "parting": ar. Private to "putting": u.

"parting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "putting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • partingaprting · paritng · parrting · partign · partingg · partinng · partnig · partting
  • puttingpputting · ptuting · puting · putitng · puttign · puttingg · puttinng · puttnig

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "parting" and "putting" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "parting" is a noun and "putting" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "parting" or "putting"?
"putting" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,465 in our English list, against #17,918 for "parting". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list