Which to use
“waning” is a verb and “winking” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #27,334
- “waning” frequency rank
- #36,397
- “winking” frequency rank
- 63731
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | waning | winking |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of wane | The act of someone who winks. |
Letter map: waning vs winking
Shared letters muted; letters that set waning and winking apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. waning runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against winking's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - waning and winking
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: waning is averb and winkinganoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63731, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
waning is recorded at frequency rank #27,334, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈweɪ.nɪŋ/. winking is at rank #36,397, 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 63731, this pair ranks #81,380 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of waning vs winking
Shared letters: ginw. Private to "waning": a. Private to "winking": k.
"waning" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "winking" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "waning" for "winking" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "waning" or "winking" show up more?
What to do next
You've compared "waning" and "winking". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "waning" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "winking" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #81,380 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "waning" and "winking" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "winging vs winking". 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 #81,380 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.