seemingvsseepingTell them apart

Quick tell: seeming is a verb, seeping is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“seeming” is a verb and “seeping” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,791
“seeming” frequency rank
#40,013
“seeping” frequency rank
56804
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature seeming seeping
Definition present participle and gerund of seem The act by which something seeps.

Letter map: seeming vs seeping

Shared letters muted; letters that set seeming and seeping apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.

7 ch
seeming
7 ch
seeping

Role in the sentence - seeming and seeping

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: seeming is averb and seepinganoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - m in “seeming” becomes p in “seeping”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56804, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

seeming is recorded at frequency rank #16,791, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈsiːmɪŋ/. seeping is at rank #40,013, 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 56804, this pair ranks #123,630 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of seeming vs seeping

Shared letters: egins. Private to "seeming": m. Private to "seeping": p.

"seeming" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC  ·  "seeping" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • seemingeseming · seeimng · seemign · seemingg · seeminng · seemming · seemnig · semeing
  • seepingeseping · seeipng · seepign · seepingg · seepinng · seepnig · seepping · sepeing

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "seeming" for "seeping" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "seeming" is a verb and "seeping" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "seeming" vs "seeping" - which ranks higher?
"seeming" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,791 in our English list, against #40,013 for "seeping". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "seeming" and "seeping".

  • Full dictionary entry for "seeming" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "seeping" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #123,630 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "seeming" and "seeping" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seeping vs sheeting". 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 #123,630 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