postingvsputtingConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#3,714
“posting” frequency rank
#1,465
“putting” frequency rank
5179
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature posting putting
Definition present participle and gerund of post present participle and gerund of put

Where the eye mixes posting and putting

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
posting
7 ch
putting

Why the eye confuses posting with putting

A purely visual mix-up. posting (/ˈpəʊstɪŋ/) and putting (/ˈpʊtɪŋ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5179, 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/. putting is at rank #1,465, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈpʊtɪŋ/.

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 5179, this pair ranks #516,304 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of posting vs putting

Shared letters: ginpt. Private to "posting": os. Private to "putting": u.

"posting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "putting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • postingopsting · positng · possting · postign · postingg · postinng · postnig · postting
  • puttingpputting · ptuting · puting · putitng · puttign · puttingg · puttinng · puttnig

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "posting" and "putting" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpəʊstɪŋ/ versus /ˈpʊtɪŋ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "posting" vs "putting" - which ranks higher?
"putting" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,465 in our English list, against #3,714 for "posting". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "posting" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "putting" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #516,304 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "posting" and "putting" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "porting vs posting". 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 #516,304 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