Which to use
“widening” is an adjective and “winning” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #16,386
- “widening” frequency rank
- #1,132
- “winning” frequency rank
- 17518
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | widening | winning |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Growing wider or farther apart. | present participle and gerund of win |
Where the eye mixes widening and winning
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. widening runs 8 letters (CVCVCVCC) against winning's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: widening vs winning
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: widening is /ˈwaɪdənɪŋ/ while winning is /ˈwɪnɪŋ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17518, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
widening is recorded at frequency rank #16,386, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈwaɪdənɪŋ/. winning is at rank #1,132, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈwɪnɪŋ/.
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 17518, this pair ranks #450,926 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of widening vs winning
Shared letters: ginw. Private to "widening": de. Private to "winning": -.
"widening" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC · "winning" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "widening" and "winning" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "widening" or "winning" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "widening" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "winning" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #450,926 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "widening" and "winning" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "whitening vs widening". 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 #450,926 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.