caressing
/kəˈɹɛsɪŋ/
"caressing" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“caressing” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #40,605 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #40,605
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - present participle and gerund of caress
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 | caressing |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /kəˈɹɛsɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #40,605 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “caressing” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for caressing is 9 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kəˈɹɛsɪŋ/. Corpus data places it at rank #40,605 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 caress".
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for caressing, with forms such as "acressing", "caerssing", and "caresing". 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 1 confusable-pair relationship, "crossing", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is caressing, spelled C-A-R-E-S-S-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1present participle and gerund of caress
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: acressing,caerssing,caresing,caresisng,caressign,caressingg,caressinng,caressnig,carressing,carsesing,ccaressing,craessing
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of caressing - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “caressing”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-A-R-E-S-S-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kəˈɹɛsɪŋ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “crossing” - see the side-by-side comparison. caressing vs crossing
- 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.