Which to use
“teaming” is a noun and “telling” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #18,714
- “teaming” frequency rank
- #1,288
- “telling” frequency rank
- 20002
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | teaming | telling |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An instance of teamwork. | present participle and gerund of tell |
Letter map: teaming vs telling
Shared letters muted; letters that set teaming and telling apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.
Role in the sentence - teaming and telling
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: teaming is anoun and tellingaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20002, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
teaming is recorded at frequency rank #18,714, classified as anoun. telling is at rank #1,288, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈtɛlɪŋ/.
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 20002, this pair ranks #434,222 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of teaming vs telling
Shared letters: egint. Private to "teaming": am. Private to "telling": l.
"teaming" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC · "telling" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "teaming" and "telling" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "teaming" or "telling" show up more?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "teaming" and "telling".
- Full dictionary entry for "teaming" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "telling" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #434,222 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "teaming" and "telling" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "teaming vs thawing". 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 #434,222 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.