Which to use
“unsettling” is an adjective and “upsetting” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,006
- “unsettling” frequency rank
- #13,633
- “upsetting” frequency rank
- 33639
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | unsettling | upsetting |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | That makes one troubled or uneasy; disquieting or distressing. | An overturning or disarrangement. |
Letter map: unsettling vs upsetting
Shared letters muted; letters that set unsettling and upsetting apart highlighted. Shared run: 8.
Part-of-speech tell for unsettling / upsetting
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: unsettling is anadjective and upsettinganoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33639, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
unsettling is recorded at frequency rank #20,006, classified as anadj. upsetting is at rank #13,633, 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 33639, this pair ranks #327,686 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of unsettling vs upsetting
Shared letters: eginstu. Private to "unsettling": l. Private to "upsetting": p.
"unsettling" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCCVCC · "upsetting" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- unsettling ← nusettling · unesttling · unnsettling · unsetling · unsetlting · unsettilng · unsettlign · unsettlingg
- upsetting ← pusetting · upestting · uppsetting · upseting · upsetitng · upsettign · upsettingg · upsettinng
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "unsettling" and "upsetting" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "unsettling" vs "upsetting" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "unsettling" and "upsetting".
- Full dictionary entry for "unsettling" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "upsetting" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #327,686 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- 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 #327,686 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.