Which to use
“reeling” is a verb and “revealing” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #25,898
- “reeling” frequency rank
- #7,491
- “revealing” frequency rank
- 33389
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | reeling | revealing |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of reel | Informative. |
Where the eye mixes reeling and revealing
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. reeling runs 7 letters (CVVCVCC) against revealing's 9 (CVCVVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between reeling and revealing
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: reeling is /ˈɹiːlɪŋ/ while revealing is /ɹɪˈviːlɪŋ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33389, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
reeling is recorded at frequency rank #25,898, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈɹiːlɪŋ/. revealing is at rank #7,491, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɹɪˈviːlɪŋ/.
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 33389, this pair ranks #329,852 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of reeling vs revealing
Shared letters: egilnr. Private to "reeling": -. Private to "revealing": av.
"reeling" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC · "revealing" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "reeling" for "revealing" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "reeling" or "revealing" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "reeling" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "revealing" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #329,852 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "reeling" and "revealing" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "reeling vs Riesling". 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 #329,852 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.