Which to use
“tailing” and “tolling” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,442
- “tailing” frequency rank
- #43,967
- “tolling” frequency rank
- 86409
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tailing | tolling |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The act of following someone. | The act by which a bell is tolled. |
Letter map: tailing vs tolling
Shared letters muted; letters that set tailing and tolling apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.
Corpus notes: tailing and tolling
tailing and tolling are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 86409, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tailing is recorded at frequency rank #42,442, classified as anoun. tolling is at rank #43,967, 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 86409, this pair ranks #9,004 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tailing vs tolling
Shared letters: gilnt. Private to "tailing": a. Private to "tolling": o.
"tailing" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC · "tolling" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "tailing" and "tolling" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "tailing" or "tolling" show up more?
What to do next
You've compared "tailing" and "tolling". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "tailing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tolling" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #9,004 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tailing" and "tolling" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "toiling vs tolling". 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 #9,004 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.