plantingvsplantingsConfusable pair

Which to use

“planting” and “plantings” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#9,508
“planting” frequency rank
#35,018
“plantings” frequency rank
44526
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature planting plantings
Definition A plant (or clipping) that has been freshly planted. plural of planting

Where the eye mixes planting and plantings

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. planting runs 8 letters (CCVCCVCC) against plantings's 9 (CCVCCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
planting
9 ch
plantings

Look-alike desk: planting vs plantings

A purely visual mix-up. planting (/ˈplɑːntɪŋ/) and plantings (/ˈplɑːntɪŋz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “planting” sits inside “plantings”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44526, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

planting is recorded at frequency rank #9,508, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈplɑːntɪŋ/. plantings is at rank #35,018, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈplɑːntɪŋz/.

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 44526, this pair ranks #229,698 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of planting vs plantings

Shared letters: agilnpt. Private to "planting": -. Private to "plantings": s.

"planting" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC  ·  "plantings" · 9 letters · shape CCVCCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • planting ← lpanting · palnting · planitng · plannting · plantign · plantingg · plantinng · plantnig
  • plantings ← lpantings · palntings · planitngs · planntings · plantigns · plantinggs · plantingss · plantinngs

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "planting" for "plantings" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈplɑːntɪŋ/ versus /ˈplɑːntɪŋz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "planting" or "plantings"?
"planting" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,508 in our English list, against #35,018 for "plantings". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "planting" and "plantings" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "planting" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "plantings" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #229,698 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "planting" and "plantings" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "planing vs plantings". 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 #229,698 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