Which to use
“stalling” is a noun and “staying” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23,112
- “stalling” frequency rank
- #2,764
- “staying” frequency rank
- 25876
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | stalling | staying |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The act of a person or thing that stalls. | present participle and gerund of stay |
Letter map: stalling vs staying
Shared letters muted; letters that set stalling and staying apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.
Role in the sentence - stalling and staying
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: stalling is anoun and stayingaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25876, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
stalling is recorded at frequency rank #23,112, classified as anoun. staying is at rank #2,764, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈsteɪ.ɪŋ/.
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 25876, this pair ranks #390,966 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of stalling vs staying
Shared letters: aginst. Private to "stalling": l. Private to "staying": y.
"stalling" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC · "staying" · 7 letters · shape CCVVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "stalling" and "staying" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "stalling" or "staying"?
Useful next steps
Pair "stalling" vs "staying" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "stalling" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "staying" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #390,966 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "stalling" and "staying" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "scalping vs stalling". 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 #390,966 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.