# paying vs praying

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### paying
*verb · IPA /ˈpeɪ.ɪŋ/ · frequency rank #1,834*
present participle and gerund of pay

### praying
*noun · frequency rank #7,265*
An act of saying a prayer.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/paying-vs-praying