stoppingvsstrippingTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#4,412
“stopping” frequency rank
#14,643
“stripping” frequency rank
19055
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature stopping stripping
Definition present participle and gerund of stop The act of one who strips.

Letter map: stopping vs stripping

Shared letters muted; letters that set stopping and stripping apart highlighted. Shared run: 7.

8 ch
stopping
9 ch
stripping

Role in the sentence - stopping and stripping

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: stopping is averb and strippinganoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19055, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

stopping is recorded at frequency rank #4,412, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈstɑpɪŋ/. stripping is at rank #14,643, 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 19055, this pair ranks #440,804 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of stopping vs stripping

Shared letters: ginpst. Private to "stopping": o. Private to "stripping": r.

"stopping" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC  ·  "stripping" · 9 letters · shape CCCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stoppingsotpping · sstopping · stoping · stopipng · stoppign · stoppingg · stoppinng · stoppnig
  • strippingsrtipping · sstripping · stirpping · striping · stripipng · strippign · strippingg · strippinng

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "stopping" for "stripping" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "stopping" is a verb and "stripping" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "stopping" or "stripping"?
"stopping" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,412 in our English list, against #14,643 for "stripping". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "stopping" vs "stripping" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "stopping" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stripping" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #440,804 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "stopping" and "stripping" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "striding vs stripping". 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 #440,804 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