Which to use
“walking” is a verb and “Wilkins” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,472
- “walking” frequency rank
- #19,254
- “Wilkins” frequency rank
- 20726
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | walking | Wilkins |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of walk | A surname originating as a patronymic. |
Where the eye mixes walking and Wilkins
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. walking and Wilkins follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: walking vs Wilkins
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: walking is /ˈwɔː.kɪŋ/ while Wilkins is /ˈwɪlkɪnz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20726, 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/. Wilkins is at rank #19,254, tagged as aname, pronounced /ˈwɪlkɪnz/.
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 20726, this pair ranks #429,097 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of walking vs Wilkins
Shared letters: iklnw. Private to "walking": ag. Private to "Wilkins": s.
"walking" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "Wilkins" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "walking" for "Wilkins" ever safe?
Frequency check: "walking" vs "Wilkins" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "walking" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Wilkins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #429,097 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "walking" and "Wilkins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Wilkie vs Wilkins". 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 #429,097 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.