Which to use
“shaking” is a verb and “sulking” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,295
- “shaking” frequency rank
- #48,518
- “sulking” frequency rank
- 54813
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shaking | sulking |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of shake | The act of one who sulks. |
Letter map: shaking vs sulking
Shared letters muted; letters that set shaking and sulking apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. shaking (CCVCVCC) and sulking (CVCCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Part-of-speech tell for shaking / sulking
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: shaking is averb and sulkinganoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54813, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shaking is recorded at frequency rank #6,295, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈʃeɪkɪŋ/. sulking is at rank #48,518, 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 54813, this pair ranks #138,285 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of shaking vs sulking
Shared letters: gikns. Private to "shaking": ah. Private to "sulking": lu.
"shaking" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC · "sulking" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "shaking" and "sulking" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "shaking" or "sulking"?
What to do next
You've compared "shaking" and "sulking". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "shaking" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sulking" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #138,285 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shaking" and "sulking" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "suiting vs sulking". 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 #138,285 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.