tapingvsthawingWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#21,380
“taping” frequency rank
#43,414
“thawing” frequency rank
64794
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature taping thawing
Definition The act of recording something on tape, or (by extension) on another medium. present participle and gerund of thaw

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set taping and thawing apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
taping
7 ch
thawing

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: taping is anoun and thawingaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64794, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

taping is recorded at frequency rank #21,380, classified as anoun. thawing is at rank #43,414, tagged as averb.

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 64794, this pair ranks #75,937 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of taping vs thawing

Shared letters: agint. Private to "taping": p. Private to "thawing": hw.

"taping" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "thawing" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tapingatping · taipng · tapign · tapingg · tapinng · tapnig · tpaing · ttaping
  • thawinghtawing · tahwing · thaiwng · thawign · thawingg · thawinng · thawnig · thawwing

Frequency comparison

taping#21,380
thawing#43,414

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "taping" and "thawing" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "taping" is a noun and "thawing" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "taping" or "thawing"?
"taping" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,380 in our English list, against #43,414 for "thawing". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering taping vs thawing

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “taping”; for a verb, it's “thawing”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “taping” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list