sinningvssyncingConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#41,885
“sinning” frequency rank
#33,044
“syncing” frequency rank
74929
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sinning syncing
Definition The act of committing a sin. present participle and gerund of sync

Letter map: sinning vs syncing

Shared letters muted; letters that set sinning and syncing apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

7 ch
sinning
7 ch
syncing

Grammar separator: sinning vs syncing

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sinning is anoun and syncingaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74929, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sinning is recorded at frequency rank #41,885, classified as anoun. syncing is at rank #33,044, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈsɪŋ.kɪŋ/.

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 74929, this pair ranks #34,730 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sinning vs syncing

Shared letters: gins. Private to "sinning": -. Private to "syncing": cy.

"sinning" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "syncing" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sinningisnning · sining · sininng · sinnign · sinningg · sinninng · sinnnig · snining
  • syncingsnycing · ssyncing · sycning · synccing · syncign · syncingg · syncinng · syncnig

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sinning" for "syncing" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sinning" is a noun and "syncing" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "sinning" or "syncing" show up more?
"syncing" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,044 in our English list, against #41,885 for "sinning". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "sinning" and "syncing".

  • Full dictionary entry for "sinning" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "syncing" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #34,730 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sinning" and "syncing" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shunning vs sinning". 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 #34,730 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