postingvspoutingTell them apart

Which to use

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

#3,714
“posting” frequency rank
#41,816
“pouting” frequency rank
45530
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature posting pouting
Definition present participle and gerund of post present participle and gerund of pout

Where the eye mixes posting and pouting

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
posting
7 ch
pouting

Look-alike desk: posting vs pouting

A purely visual mix-up. posting (/ˈpəʊstɪŋ/) and pouting (/ˈpaʊtɪŋ/) 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 a single letter - s in “posting” becomes u in “pouting”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45530, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

posting is recorded at frequency rank #3,714, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈpəʊstɪŋ/. pouting is at rank #41,816, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈpaʊtɪŋ/.

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 45530, this pair ranks #220,436 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of posting vs pouting

Shared letters: ginopt. Private to "posting": s. Private to "pouting": u.

"posting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "pouting" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • postingopsting · positng · possting · postign · postingg · postinng · postnig · postting
  • poutingoputing · potuing · pouitng · poutign · poutingg · poutinng · poutnig · poutting

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "posting" and "pouting" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpəʊstɪŋ/ versus /ˈpaʊtɪŋ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "posting" or "pouting"?
"posting" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,714 in our English list, against #41,816 for "pouting". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "posting" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pouting" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #220,436 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "posting" and "pouting" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "porting vs pouting". 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 #220,436 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