Which to use
“spoiling” is a noun and “sporting” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #21,075
- “spoiling” frequency rank
- #5,554
- “sporting” frequency rank
- 26629
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | spoiling | sporting |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plunder; pillage | present participle and gerund of sport |
Letter map: spoiling vs sporting
Shared letters muted; letters that set spoiling and sporting apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.
Part-of-speech tell for spoiling / sporting
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: spoiling is anoun and sportingaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26629, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
spoiling is recorded at frequency rank #21,075, classified as anoun. sporting is at rank #5,554, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈspɔɹtɪŋ/.
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 26629, this pair ranks #385,280 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of spoiling vs sporting
Shared letters: ginops. Private to "spoiling": l. Private to "sporting": rt.
"spoiling" · 8 letters · shape CCVVCVCC · "sporting" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "spoiling" for "sporting" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "spoiling" or "sporting" show up more?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "spoiling" and "sporting".
- Full dictionary entry for "spoiling" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sporting" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #385,280 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "spoiling" and "sporting" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "spoiling vs spoofing". 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 #385,280 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.