uplinkvsuppingWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#40,500
“uplink” frequency rank
#35,141
“upping” frequency rank
75641
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature uplink upping
Definition The portion of a communications link used for the transmission of signals from an Earth terminal to a satellite or to an airborne platform. An uplink is the converse of a downlink. An uplink or downlink is distinguished from reverse link or forward link. present participle and gerund of up

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set uplink and upping apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
uplink
6 ch
upping

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: uplink is anoun and uppingaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75641, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

uplink is recorded at frequency rank #40,500, classified as anoun. upping is at rank #35,141, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈʌpɪŋ/.

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 75641, this pair ranks #32,528 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of uplink vs upping

Shared letters: inpu. Private to "uplink": kl. Private to "upping": g.

"uplink" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC  ·  "upping" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • uplinkpulink · ulpink · upilnk · uplikn · uplinkk · uplinnk · upllink · uplnik
  • uppingpuping · uping · upipng · uppign · uppingg · uppinng · uppnig

Frequency comparison

uplink#40,500
upping#35,141

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "uplink" and "upping" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "uplink" is a noun and "upping" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "uplink" or "upping"?
"upping" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,141 in our English list, against #40,500 for "uplink". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering uplink vs upping

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “uplink”; for a verb, it's “upping”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “uplink” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list