textingvstoutingWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#11,134
“texting” frequency rank
#36,793
“touting” frequency rank
47927
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature texting touting
Definition present participle and gerund of text The act of one who touts.

Letter map: texting vs touting

Shared letters muted; letters that set texting and touting apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

7 ch
texting
7 ch
touting

Grammar separator: texting vs touting

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: texting is averb and toutinganoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47927, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

texting is recorded at frequency rank #11,134, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈtɛkstɪŋ/. touting is at rank #36,793, 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 47927, this pair ranks #197,889 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of texting vs touting

Shared letters: gint. Private to "texting": ex. Private to "touting": ou.

"texting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "touting" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • textingetxting · tetxing · texitng · textign · textingg · textinng · textnig · textting
  • toutingotuting · totuing · touitng · toutign · toutingg · toutinng · toutnig · toutting

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "texting" and "touting" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "texting" is a verb and "touting" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "texting" or "touting" show up more?
"texting" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,134 in our English list, against #36,793 for "touting". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "texting" and "touting".

  • Full dictionary entry for "texting" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "touting" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #197,889 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "texting" and "touting" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "toiling vs touting". 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 #197,889 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list