Which to use
“tailings” and “tiling” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,443
- “tailings” frequency rank
- #34,723
- “tiling” frequency rank
- 77166
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tailings | tiling |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The waste that remains after the minerals have been extracted from an ore by ore dressing; the waste from coal mining. | A covering of tiles. |
Letter map: tailings vs tiling
Shared letters muted; letters that set tailings and tiling apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.
Pair insight - tailings / tiling
tailings and tiling 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 differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77166, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tailings is recorded at frequency rank #42,443, classified as anoun. tiling is at rank #34,723, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈtaɪlɪŋ/.
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 77166, this pair ranks #28,008 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tailings vs tiling
Shared letters: gilnt. Private to "tailings": as. Private to "tiling": -.
"tailings" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCCC · "tiling" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "tailings" and "tiling" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "tailings" vs "tiling" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "tailings" and "tiling".
- Full dictionary entry for "tailings" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tiling" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #28,008 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tailings" and "tiling" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tailings vs toiling". 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 #28,008 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.