vexingvsvotingConfusable pair

Quick tell: vexing is a verb, voting is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#48,549
“vexing” frequency rank
#2,421
“voting” frequency rank
50970
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vexing voting
Definition present participle and gerund of vex Having an associated right for the holder to vote as an owner of business.

Letter map: vexing vs voting

Shared letters muted; letters that set vexing and voting apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. vexing and voting 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
voting

Role in the sentence - vexing and voting

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: vexing is averb and votinganadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50970, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vexing is recorded at frequency rank #48,549, classified as averb. voting is at rank #2,421, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈvoʊtɪŋ/.

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 50970, this pair ranks #169,519 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vexing vs voting

Shared letters: ginv. Private to "vexing": ex. Private to "voting": ot.

"vexing" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "voting" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vexing ← evxing · veixng · vexign · vexingg · vexinng · vexnig · vexxing · vvexing
  • voting ← ovting · voitng · votign · votingg · votinng · votnig · votting · vtoing

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vexing" for "voting" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vexing" is a verb and "voting" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "vexing" or "voting"?
"voting" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,421 in our English list, against #48,549 for "vexing". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "vexing" and "voting".

  • Full dictionary entry for "vexing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "voting" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #169,519 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vexing" and "voting" 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 #169,519 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