sextingvsstatingWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#29,832
“sexting” frequency rank
#5,632
“stating” frequency rank
35464
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sexting stating
Definition The act of transmitting and/or receiving sexually suggestive text messages and/or photographs between cell phones equipped with text messaging. statement

Where the eye mixes sexting and stating

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

7 ch
sexting
7 ch
stating

Look-alike desk: sexting vs stating

A purely visual mix-up. sexting (/ˈsɛkstɪŋ/) and stating (/ˈsteɪtɪŋ/) 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 35464, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sexting is recorded at frequency rank #29,832, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɛkstɪŋ/. stating is at rank #5,632, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsteɪtɪŋ/.

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 35464, this pair ranks #311,691 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sexting vs stating

Shared letters: ginst. Private to "sexting": ex. Private to "stating": a.

"sexting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "stating" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sextingesxting · setxing · sexitng · sextign · sextingg · sextinng · sextnig · sextting
  • statingsatting · sstating · staitng · statign · statingg · statinng · statnig · statting

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sexting" and "stating" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈsɛkstɪŋ/ versus /ˈsteɪtɪŋ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "sexting" vs "stating" - which ranks higher?
"stating" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,632 in our English list, against #29,832 for "sexting". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sexting" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stating" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #311,691 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sexting" and "stating" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sexting vs suiting". 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 #311,691 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