Which to use
“pulling” is a verb and “purring” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,971
- “pulling” frequency rank
- #40,408
- “purring” frequency rank
- 44379
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pulling | purring |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of pull | A sound that purrs. |
Letter map: pulling vs purring
Shared letters muted; letters that set pulling and purring apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.
Part-of-speech tell for pulling / purring
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pulling is averb and purringanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44379, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pulling is recorded at frequency rank #3,971, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈpʊlɪŋ/. purring is at rank #40,408, 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 44379, this pair ranks #231,104 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pulling vs purring
Shared letters: ginpu. Private to "pulling": l. Private to "purring": r.
"pulling" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "purring" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pulling" for "purring" ever safe?
Frequency check: "pulling" vs "purring" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
You've compared "pulling" and "purring". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "pulling" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "purring" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #231,104 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pulling" and "purring" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "porting vs purring". 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 #231,104 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.