TuringvsturnWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Turing is a name, turn is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Turing” is a name and “turn” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,843
“Turing” frequency rank
#484
“turn” frequency rank
23327
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Turing turn
Definition A surname of Germanic origin. To make a non-linear physical movement.

Where the eye mixes Turing and turn

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Turing
4 ch
turn

Why the eye confuses Turing with turn

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Turing is /ˈtʊɹɪŋ/ while turn is /tɜːn/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23327, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Turing is recorded at frequency rank #22,843, classified as aname, pronounced /ˈtʊɹɪŋ/. turn is at rank #484, tagged as averb, pronounced /tɜːn/.

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 23327, this pair ranks #410,134 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Turing vs turn

Shared letters: nrtu. Private to "Turing": gi. Private to "turn": -.

"Turing" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "turn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Turingtruing · tturing · tuirng · turign · turingg · turnig · turring · utring
  • turntrun · tturn · tunr · turnn · turrn · utrn

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Turing" and "turn" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Turing" is a name and "turn" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Turing" vs "turn" - which ranks higher?
"turn" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #484 in our English list, against #22,843 for "Turing". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "Turing" and "turn" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Turing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "turn" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #410,134 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Turing" and "turn" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "trig vs Turing". 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 #410,134 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