# shelling vs sterling

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### shelling
*verb · IPA /ˈʃɛlɪŋ/ · frequency rank #23,097*
present participle and gerund of shell

### sterling
*noun · IPA /ˈstɜːlɪŋ/ · frequency rank #5,842*
An English silver penny first introduced by the Normans.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shelling-vs-sterling