vexingvsVikingConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#48,549
“vexing” frequency rank
#13,076
“Viking” frequency rank
61625
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vexing Viking
Definition present participle and gerund of vex Scandinavian/Northern European seafarers, most familiarly raiders and pirates during the Viking age.

Letter map: vexing vs Viking

Shared letters muted; letters that set vexing and Viking apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. vexing and Viking follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
vexing
6 ch
Viking

Part-of-speech tell for vexing / Viking

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: vexing is averb and Vikinganoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61625, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vexing is recorded at frequency rank #48,549, classified as averb. Viking is at rank #13,076, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈvaɪkɪŋ/.

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 61625, this pair ranks #93,161 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of vexing vs Viking

Shared letters: ginv. Private to "vexing": ex. Private to "Viking": k.

"vexing" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "Viking" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vexing ← evxing · veixng · vexign · vexingg · vexinng · vexnig · vexxing · vvexing
  • Viking ← ivking · viikng · vikign · vikingg · vikinng · vikking · viknig · vkiing

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "vexing" and "Viking" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vexing" is a verb and "Viking" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "vexing" or "Viking"?
"Viking" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,076 in our English list, against #48,549 for "vexing". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "vexing" and "Viking". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vexing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Viking" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #93,161 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vexing" and "Viking" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vexing vs vying". 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 #93,161 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