permittingvspersistingTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#15,879
“permitting” frequency rank
#41,807
“persisting” frequency rank
57686
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature permitting persisting
Definition present participle and gerund of permit persistence

Letter map: permitting vs persisting

Shared letters muted; letters that set permitting and persisting apart highlighted. Shared run: 8.

10 ch
permitting
10 ch
persisting

Grammar separator: permitting vs persisting

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: permitting is averb and persistinganoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57686, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

permitting is recorded at frequency rank #15,879, classified as averb. persisting is at rank #41,807, tagged as anoun.

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 57686, this pair ranks #117,719 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of permitting vs persisting

Shared letters: eginprt. Private to "permitting": m. Private to "persisting": s.

"permitting" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCC  ·  "persisting" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • permittingeprmitting · pemritting · perimtting · permiting · permititng · permittign · permittingg · permittinng
  • persistingeprsisting · perissting · perrsisting · persisitng · persissting · persistign · persistingg · persistinng

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "permitting" and "persisting" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "permitting" is a verb and "persisting" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "permitting" or "persisting" show up more?
"permitting" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,879 in our English list, against #41,807 for "persisting". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "permitting" vs "persisting" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "permitting" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "persisting" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #117,719 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "permitting" and "persisting" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "persistent vs persisting". 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 #117,719 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list