Which to use
“telling” is a verb and “tolling” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,288
- “telling” frequency rank
- #43,967
- “tolling” frequency rank
- 45255
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | telling | tolling |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of tell | The act by which a bell is tolled. |
Letter map: telling vs tolling
Shared letters muted; letters that set telling and tolling apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.
Role in the sentence - telling and tolling
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: telling is averb and tollinganoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - e in “telling” becomes o in “tolling”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45255, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
telling is recorded at frequency rank #1,288, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈtɛlɪŋ/. 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 45255, this pair ranks #222,932 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of telling vs tolling
Shared letters: gilnt. Private to "telling": e. Private to "tolling": o.
"telling" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "tolling" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "telling" and "tolling" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "telling" vs "tolling" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pair "telling" vs "tolling" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "telling" 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 #222,932 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "telling" 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 #222,932 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.