draining
/ˈdɹeɪnɪŋ/
"draining" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“draining” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #13,906 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #13,906
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 10
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - present participle and gerund of drain
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 | draining |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈdɹeɪnɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #13,906 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 10 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “draining” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for draining is 8 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈdɹeɪnɪŋ/. Corpus data places it at rank #13,906 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 drain".
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for draining, with forms such as "darining", "ddraining", and "draiinng". 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 10 confusable-pair relationships, "driving", "drawing", "drinking", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is draining, spelled D-R-A-I-N-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1present participle and gerund of drain
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: darining,ddraining,draiinng,drainign,drainingg,draininng,drainnig,drainning,draniing,drianing,drraining,rdaining
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of draining - 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 “draining”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-R-A-I-N-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈdɹeɪnɪŋ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “driving” - see the side-by-side comparison. draining vs driving
- 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.