walkingvswallingConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#1,472
“walking” frequency rank
#47,416
“walling” frequency rank
48888
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature walking walling
Definition present participle and gerund of walk A group of walls.

Letter map: walking vs walling

Shared letters muted; letters that set walking and walling apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.

7 ch
walking
7 ch
walling

Role in the sentence - walking and walling

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: walking is averb and wallinganoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - k in “walking” becomes l in “walling”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48888, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

walking is recorded at frequency rank #1,472, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈwɔː.kɪŋ/. walling is at rank #47,416, 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 48888, this pair ranks #188,827 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of walking vs walling

Shared letters: agilnw. Private to "walking": k. Private to "walling": -.

"walking" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "walling" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • walkingawlking · wakling · walikng · walkign · walkingg · walkinng · walkking · walknig
  • wallingawlling · walilng · waling · wallign · wallingg · wallinng · wallnig · wlaling

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "walking" for "walling" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "walking" is a verb and "walling" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "walking" or "walling"?
"walking" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,472 in our English list, against #47,416 for "walling". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've compared "walking" and "walling". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "walking" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "walling" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #188,827 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "walking" and "walling" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "walling vs wallowing". 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 #188,827 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