Which to use
“patting” is a noun and “petting” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #32,530
- “patting” frequency rank
- #27,244
- “petting” frequency rank
- 59774
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | patting | petting |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The act by which something is patted. | present participle and gerund of pet |
Where the eye mixes patting and petting
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. patting and petting follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: patting vs petting
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: patting is /ˈpætɪŋ/ while petting is /ˈpɛtɪŋ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “patting” becomes e in “petting”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59774, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
patting is recorded at frequency rank #32,530, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpætɪŋ/. petting is at rank #27,244, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈpɛtɪŋ/.
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 59774, this pair ranks #104,183 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of patting vs petting
Shared letters: ginpt. Private to "patting": a. Private to "petting": e.
"patting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "petting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "patting" for "petting" ever safe?
Which is more common, "patting" or "petting"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "patting" and "petting" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "patting" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "petting" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #104,183 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "patting" and "petting" 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 #104,183 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.