Which to use
“talkie” and “talking” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #36,368
- “talkie” frequency rank
- #520
- “talking” frequency rank
- 36888
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | talkie | talking |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A movie with sound, as opposed to a silent film. | The action of the verb talk. |
Where the eye mixes talkie and talking
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between talkie and talking
A purely visual mix-up. talkie (/ˈtɔːki/) and talking (/ˈtɔːkɪŋ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36888, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
talkie is recorded at frequency rank #36,368, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈtɔːki/. talking is at rank #520, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈtɔːkɪŋ/.
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 36888, this pair ranks #299,275 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of talkie vs talking
Shared letters: aiklt. Private to "talkie": e. Private to "talking": gn.
"talkie" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "talking" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "talkie" for "talking" ever safe?
Which is more common, "talkie" or "talking"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "talkie" and "talking" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "talkie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "talking" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #299,275 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "talkie" and "talking" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "talkie vs talkies". 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 #299,275 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.