Which to use
“petting” is a verb and “potting” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #27,244
- “petting” frequency rank
- #41,317
- “potting” frequency rank
- 68561
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | petting | potting |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of pet | The placing of something in a pot. |
Letter map: petting vs potting
Shared letters muted; letters that set petting and potting apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.
Role in the sentence - petting and potting
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: petting is averb and pottinganoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - e in “petting” becomes o in “potting”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68561, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
petting is recorded at frequency rank #27,244, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈpɛtɪŋ/. potting is at rank #41,317, 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 68561, this pair ranks #58,361 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of petting vs potting
Shared letters: ginpt. Private to "petting": e. Private to "potting": o.
"petting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "potting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "petting" and "potting" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "petting" or "potting"?
What to do next
You've compared "petting" and "potting". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "petting" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "potting" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #58,361 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "petting" and "potting" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "porting vs potting". 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 #58,361 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.