wooingvsworkingWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#39,651
“wooing” frequency rank
#342
“working” frequency rank
39993
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wooing working
Definition present participle and gerund of woo Operation; action.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set wooing and working apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
wooing
7 ch
working

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: wooing is averb and workinganoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39993, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wooing is recorded at frequency rank #39,651, classified as averb. working is at rank #342, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈwɜːkɪŋ/.

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 39993, this pair ranks #271,623 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wooing vs working

Shared letters: ginow. Private to "wooing": -. Private to "working": kr.

"wooing" · 6 letters · shape CVVVCC  ·  "working" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wooingowoing · woiong · wooign · wooingg · wooinng · woonig · wwooing
  • workingowrking · wokring · worikng · workign · workingg · workinng · workking · worknig

Frequency comparison

wooing#39,651
working#342

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wooing" and "working" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wooing" is a verb and "working" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "wooing" or "working"?
"working" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #342 in our English list, against #39,651 for "wooing". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering wooing vs working

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “wooing”; for a noun, it's “working”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “wooing” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list