adhering
"adhering" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“adhering” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #24,371 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #24,371
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - present participle and gerund of adhere
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | adhering |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #24,371 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “adhering” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for adhering is 8 letters long, classified as a verb. Corpus data places it at rank #24,371 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "present participle and gerund of adhere".
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for adhering, with forms such as "addhering", "adehring", and "adheirng". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "adoring", "altering", "admiring", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English *adherynge, adherande, present participle of Middle English *adheren, from Old French *adherer, aderer and Medieval Latin adhaereō (“adhere”, verb), equivalent to adhere + -ing. The correct English form is adhering, spelled A-D-H-E-R-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1present participle and gerund of adhere
Etymology
From Middle English *adherynge, adherande, present participle of Middle English *adheren, from Old French *adherer, aderer and Medieval Latin adhaereō (“adhere”, verb), equivalent to adhere + -ing.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: addhering,adehring,adheirng,adherign,adheringg,adherinng,adhernig,adherring,adhhering,adhreing,ahdering,dahering
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of adhering - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “adhering”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-D-H-E-R-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “adoring” - see the side-by-side comparison. adhering vs adoring
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.