touchingvstoutingConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#4,990
“touching” frequency rank
#36,793
“touting” frequency rank
41783
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature touching touting
Definition present participle and gerund of touch The act of one who touts.

Letter map: touching vs touting

Shared letters muted; letters that set touching and touting apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.

8 ch
touching
7 ch
touting

Role in the sentence - touching and touting

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: touching is averb and toutinganoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41783, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

touching is recorded at frequency rank #4,990, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈtʌt͡ʃɪŋ/. 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 41783, this pair ranks #255,230 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of touching vs touting

Shared letters: ginotu. Private to "touching": ch. Private to "touting": -.

"touching" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC  ·  "touting" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • touchingotuching · tocuhing · toucching · touchhing · touchign · touchingg · touchinng · touchnig
  • toutingotuting · totuing · touitng · toutign · toutingg · toutinng · toutnig · toutting

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "touching" and "touting" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "touching" is a verb and "touting" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "touching" or "touting" show up more?
"touching" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,990 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

Pair "touching" vs "touting" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "touching" 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 #255,230 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "touching" 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 #255,230 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