bothering

adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"bothering" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“bothering” has 14 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #12,378. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#12,378
frequency rank, English
4,121
“B” headwords
14
tracked misspellings
4
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - That bothers; annoying, irritating.

Corpus desk

Index EN-bothering · bothering · English

bothering · rank #12,378 · 14 variants · 4 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #12,378
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 4 pairs
  • VAR-HIGH 14 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,121
  • PHOTO-FINISH bing

Nearest frequency peer: bing (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “bothering”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “bothering” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

bothering vs butchering
80% similar
bothering vs bordering
78% similar
bothering vs battering
78% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for bothering
PropertyValue
Headwordbothering
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters9
Frequency rank#12,378
Misspellings tracked14
Confusable pairs4
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “bothering”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).botheringlands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Same rarity band neighbours include “bing” (#12,377), “broadcaster” (#12,379), “Becky” (#12,376). Among 4,121 “B” headwords, “bothering” is #12,378. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 14 spelling variants around bothering, anadjective. Corpus frequency is #12,378 among 4,121 “B” headwords. Dominant gloss: "That bothers; annoying, irritating.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 14 likely wrong-spelling variants for bothering, with forms such as "bbothering", "bohtering", and "botehring". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "butchering", "bordering", "battering", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is bothering, spelled B-O-T-H-E-R-I-N-G.

Definition

  1. 1
    That bothers; annoying, irritating.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how bothering appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. ‘I never told you, I had a bothering experience with him. Nothing came of it fortunately.’

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • bbothering
  • bohtering
  • botehring
  • botheirng
  • botherign
  • botheringg
  • botherinng
  • bothernig
  • botherring
  • bothhering
  • bothreing
  • botthering
  • btohering
  • obthering

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of bothering - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

bbothering1bohtering2botehring2botheirng2botherign2botheringg1botherinng1bothernig2
Edit distance from "bothering"

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

How do you spell "bothering"?
"bothering" is spelled B-O-T-H-E-R-I-N-G.
What does "bothering" mean?
As an adjective, "bothering" means: That bothers; annoying, irritating.
What words are commonly confused with "bothering"?
"bothering" is commonly confused with "butchering", "bordering", "battering". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What language does "bothering" come from?
"bothering" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "bothering", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

astronomy#12,367assertion#12,366consulted#12,395allergies#12,360

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (14 here; floor ≥5).

affiliation14 variantsdistorted14 variantssupremacy14 variantssubstrate14 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list